


The Flame and Spear

by Frazi



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark Humor, Demons, F/M, Real hell, Romance, Sexy Times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:42:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27996213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frazi/pseuds/Frazi
Summary: Lately I kept thinking how the game made hell so fluffy. And so I didn't.
Relationships: Mammon (Shall We Date? Obey Me!)/MC, Mammon (Shall We Date? Obey Me!)/Main Character, Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!) & Reader, Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Character(s), Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s), Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Reader
Comments: 157
Kudos: 250





	1. Ignition

**Author's Note:**

> A Work in progress. If you like, please comment, it will encourage me to write more. I've been struggling to get my muse back.

It wasn’t as if I hadn’t believed in the place.

I mean obviously there had to be a place for all those reprobates to go. Still to find out all those things that go bump in the night were really bumpy and all those monsters under my bed were really in my bed; the shock was enough to knock me dead.

But I was already dead

Probably buried by now too.

Still, it was something to be standing there in the great audience hall of all hell. Still drenched, my white t-shirt pink in places and grotesquely crimson and sticky in others. There was also very little blue left in my jeans as I stood there in a pool of my own blood. Comes with the territory when someone cuts open your throat I guess. Lifting my hand I wrapped it around my neck to find it unmarred, slick and sickly – but perfect.

“Surprise, you’re not dead.”

Lifting my head, I squinted up a the red clad thing standing before me. There was an audience around him too, but I figured he was the most important.

His horns were the largest.

Damn, but the devil was pretty.

Those wicked sharp teeth parted on a shark grin. “Thank you.”

I frowned. And he could read my mind. Well fuck.

His mouth twitched. “Do you know why you’re here?”

And the memories cut like razor blades across my mind, fraying my thoughts until I was zigzag of jagged bleeding pain. The slash of his knife, the tear of my flesh, the undeniable unjustness of it all. “Oh god.”

“Yeah, yer really callin’ the wrong boss little girl,” a cocky voice snickered.

As panic slowly ate away at my insides, I drew a few ragged breaths to keep from passing out. Because really? Going to hell was so much worse than being murdered by the man you were going to marry. Fainting would just be embarrassing. Good thing I hadn’t been wearing a wedding dress because then I would have been a bleeding cliché!

The red one burst out laughing, those devil red eyes twinkling. “Oh I like you,” he purred. “Your mind is such lovely chaos.”

I glared at him, residual fear turning to anger. “Stop laughing at me!”

He grinned. “Most sacrificial virgins that come to me don’t remember how they got here.”

“I did NOT-wait. A Sacrificial what now?” My fury fizzled into confusion as I stared at the amused big daddy of hell.

“Virgin sacrifice.” A pretty blue haired demon came to stand beside the king of hell, his wide inhuman eyes changing colors so fast, I had trouble focusing. “All she needs is a school girl uniform and she’d be perfect for the next Ruri-chan cosplay.”

“Simon…sacrificed me?” Swallowing hard, I slid my eyes back to the red one. “I thought he was a closet serial killer or something!”

“You are a predicament. When that neophyte sorcerer bled you at my alter for the ability to siphon dark magic, I did not think you’d remember. It is both sad and…fascinating.”

A sick roiling storm built in my stomach and I tried to keep from wrenching. “I…remember it.” The memory and the excruciating blade of his betrayal continued to cut me open. Maybe it would forever do so while I burned down here.

“The fire and damnation is greatly exaggerated.”

Blinking startled, I met the eyes of a raven haired demon who stood beside the king, all black and…beautiful. When he didn’t react I realized he couldn’t read my mind. He probably figured where my mind was going. Arms wrapped around my stomach, I held myself. Almost afraid of bursting into flames, because the heat of betrayal was still singing through my veins like hellfire. “Don’t suppose brimstone is another name for bubble bath?” I chocked out.

“Tsk,” There was a distasteful hiss as I saw the rest of them. And if the devil was pretty, the sins were too much for my brain to wrap around. “Impudent. I can see why the world would spit her out here.” The raven haired man tutted and looked down at me as if I was a worm.

“Pfft!” One of them cackled with a mocking snicker. “OMG, a denier. Does she even know where she is? Can I tell her? Please, please, please!”

“Asmo! Shut it!”

I blinked at the sharp bark and blinked a the faces slowly materializing around the king. The arrogant ebony haired demon was one of seven. There were six other faces watching the human that was me, dripping in the misery of my afterlife.

The big horned demon clad in red walked to me until he stood half a foot away and my breath had stalled somewhere in my chest. “Welcome to Devildom human. Think of this,” he pondered, a long sharp nail tapping on his chin as he thought before smirking. “As an exchange program.”

And I continued to burn.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Inevitability of Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diavolo’s benevolence of allowing any semblance of control was at an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is...intensely darker than anything I've written for my favorite demons and my girl. If they seem ill at ease in their role, I'm doing my best.

They were nice enough to offer me a chair. Maybe because my legs had finally given out under me. Like facing a tribunal, I sat there in the demon lord’s castle, watching as he went around explaining my predicament. Such a nice way to say how truly screwed I was.

And through it all, my one solitary thought was, ‘I’m going to kill Simon. Slowly.’

“Is that what you want?”

Blinking out of the storm of my own thoughts, I met Diavolo’s eyes. Introductions had been made. I still didn’t have the sins straight, and they didn’t mention it but they were missing one. One of them, the black one with all those feathery black wings I saw more of. The others blinked in and out of their shadowy thrones. The high demons of hell. But Lucifer, he didn’t leave the King’s side. And the silent one with the skeletal wings in his head. I mean seriously, did he fly with those?

“Miss Walker, focus.”

My head snapped around to blink at Diavolo and I took a broken breath. “It’s…a lot to take in.”

“Agreed. How’s it coming?”

Was he serious? Did he think we had on-off switches for this shit? Gritting my teeth, I dragged my spiraling mind to more conscious control. It was frayed, but at least I could make light of my situation. “So I’m in hell. What now?”

“You are a rare coming. As I said, most sacrificial virgins that come to my court, don’t know the front and tail of who or what they were before. The trauma of their death robs them of everything.”

“Will you please stop calling me a virgin?”

There was a snort of laughter and I glared at the demon brothers. I swear no matter their lineage, boys were all juvenile morons when it came to matters of sex.

“Ahem,” Lucifer cast a glance over his shoulder and the tittering died. He then turned to me, that flashing red jewel in his head distractingly shiny. “You’re NOT a virgin? There’s a science to how summonings work. So which one of you was the idiot? You or your warlock fiancé?”

My human sensibilities were hard to dent but suddenly I felt more than a worm and less than a woman. “I’ve had sex.”

There was a mocking snort from Barbatos until Diavolo glared at him and spoke gently. “My dear, I regret to inform you, that your to be husband was in fact, not an idiot. What you were doing, isn’t…”

“Stop! Please.” Mortified beyond measure, I put my blood crusted hands on my face and put my elbows on my knees as I groaned. This is not how I imagined my afterlife to be; the constant butt of their virgin sacrifice jokes. Scrubbing my dirty fingers down my face, I gazed up at the devil with defeated embarrassment. “He said we should wait, that it would be…” Biting down on the words, I balled my fists. “Fine, whatever. I remember my sad passing. I get it; I’m special.”

“Especially stupid.”

I scowled at the blond one he’d called Satan. I was already seeing he was quick to ignite and whole lot of angry. And what the hell was up with that shirt anyway?

“Miss Walker?” Turning back to Diavolo I did my best not to let my mind wander. It was a small favor only he could read my mind. His shark smile was grotesquely tender. Like he wanted my heart on a plate. “You should let Barbatos in.”

I blinked startled. “I should what?”

“You and I have a connection that came with your unfortunate demise at my alter, but Barbatos should be let into your mind. He will be in a much better position to _see_ why you remember…everything. And perhaps he can then remove those memories.”

And didn’t that just sounded like selling my soul. The instant flare of self-preservation had me out of the chair and behind it, every pore in my skin guarded and tingling. “Nothing is getting removed from me.”

“Girl, those clothes have GOT to go.”

“Asmo for the love of hell, will you let it go!”

“Awww, but I like her.”

“I’m hungry. May I be excused?”

I swallowed hard, tuning out the babble as I held Diavolo’s eyes. “I’m keeping my memories.” Then I turned my gaze to the slithering shadows where the sins sat. “And my clothes.”

Lucifer was the one who rolled his eyes with a snort. “You’ve grossly misunderstood your position.”

Diavolo raise an eyebrow at him. “Are you not curious, Lucifer?”

“She’s one of countless sacrifices My Lord, why are you making this a big deal?”

And it was almost like Diavolo’s eyes slid beneath my skin wrapped and slithered through ever crevice between my internal organs. It was unsettling and enough to make me watch to wretch. But he merely smiled that serene shark smile. “Because she isn’t a sobbing, begging mess, she gets a choice.”

I had to rub my arms to chase away the crawl of his intrusion. It still itched and scratched like a scab that doesn’t belong. Or maybe I was just trying to hold myself together. “How generous. What are my options?”

“You let Barbatos in and let me confirm what I suspect, or Barbatos takes what I need.”

Ice slid between every single vertebra in my spine, my breath captive in my throat. “Some choice.”

“Oh that wasn’t the choice. That comes if you survive _this_ ,” he nodded to his servant and to my utter horror, the thin silent one with those disturbing little wings in his head walked right up to me. Guess Diavolo’s benevolence of allowing me any semblance of control was at an end. Swallowing hard, contemplating my escape, knowing there was no exit, knowing what I was up against, tears built unbidden behind my eyes. And I hated them! I hadn’t cried when Simon had wrapped his elbow under my jaw, or when he’d cut open my throat, or when I had drowned in my own blood.

There was a strange emptiness to Barbatos as he stopped a few inches away from me, the scent of him sterile as he tilted his head and lifted his hand.

It was inevitable, but like all human arrogance towards survival, I took a step back only to feel the scalding heat of another demon behind me. “Relax human, ya won’t feel a thing.” There was a snicker against my ear and I would have shuddered, but I was already a shaking mess.

“That’s not my promise Mammon,” Barbatos spoke almost on gossamer whispers and pressed the pad of his thumb in the middle of my forehead. Everything turned to screams in my head.

And I heard the first whisper of a word that would change everything.

“Lilith.”

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Is That Your Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wasn’t human and there would always be blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long update, but my muse has been erratic. Hope you enjoy.

The world exploded into wet heat and I choked. It was the only reason instinct made me raise my head and I came out of the bath tub before I drowned to death. Again.

“Breathe human, ya wanted bubble bath, ya got bubble bath.”

Wiping soap out of my eyes and gasping to draw breath, I squinted behind the flickering candle lights that illuminated the area around the tub. Finally the blob solidified and there sat one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen. Back in the hall with the devil singing in my head and the darkness throwing shadows everywhere, I had known they were special, these high demons of hell. Now in the warm light of what looked like a lavish bathroom with a sunken jacuzzi sized bathtub, the silver haired one was blindingly gorgeous.

When I didn’t answer, he quirked an eyebrow, sitting there on the lip of the tub, a platinum ringed finger touching his mouth as he contemplated me. And those eyes. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what color they were. Blue? Gold? Sunrise? Sunset…both? “Babe, yer starin.”

“How rude,” a pouty voice fluttered around me and I spun around, water sloshing out of the tub to see the one wadded in and reclining behind me. The pink haired demon with the face of a angel smirked. “I’m much better to look at.”

He was. But breath caught in my chest, I scuttled away a little only to realize that both my routes were blocked. The tub although huge was suddenly too small for me and the demon presently occupying it. Belatedly, I realized he was completely bare in the water, and then my head jerked down and I realized I wasn’t. Still wearing the grotesquely stained t-shirt, I’d apparently been tossed in with all my clothes on. And as I watched the water turn pink around me with my blood, I was suddenly both relieved and distressed. “What the hell?”

“Does this confuse you human,” the silver-haired demon snorted and I turned to glare at him as he made a flourish around the chamber with his hand. “Water, bathtub. There’s a theme here, ya know.”

“I know this is a bath tub!” I grit my teeth and held out my sopping arms. “This isn’t exactly how a bath goes.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up, a flicker of mischief coloring him as he slid one finger into the water. “That can be fixed.” When I jerked away he pulled his hand out and flicked the bubbles away. “Relax human, that’s not my sin.”

The pink one behind me purred and moved closer. “Oh yes, lust.” I turned slowly as he swam closer and my heart kicked up a storm. “I would have taken explicit care to remove every layer off you but that hobby horse Mammon just tossed you in a like a sack of potatoes.” He grinned serenely, nearly in my personal bubble and it made my skin crawl. “I’m Asmodeus.”

The tub’s edge dug into my back and only then did I realize I’d slid back against the demon behind me. “Tsk.” There was an unimpressed huff before two strong hands wrapped around my shoulders and repositioned me a few inches away from his, now wet, shirt and jacket. “Down Asmo. Lucifer said no removing of anything.”

The pink one pouted and it was fantastically dramatic as those lovely rose-hued eyes wavered with false bereavement. “Just a little.” Asmodeus peeked through a tiny gap in his fingers but the demon behind me only let out a rather decisive growl. Asmodeus’ mood shifted like mercury as he scowled and rose out of the tub to his full height. And like something out of those expensive porn movies I saw the way the water clung to his flesh, all the way down his stomach to…Shit! Heat exploded across my face and I slammed my eyes shut.

“Wow. Will you look at that. She really is a virgin.”

“Can we PLEASE stop talking about my chastity!”

Mammon seemed to smother a laugh as I heard more than felt Asmodeus climb out of the tub and pad away. But I felt his derisive chuckle as he stopped beside his brother. It oozed menace. “You can’t watch her all the time Mammon.”

A chill skated down my spine and I felt the squeeze of his hands on my shoulders. I remembered he was still holding me. Perhaps to steady me. Perhaps to hold me captive. Either way, when the bathroom door slammed shut, I couldn’t help the startled breath. Or the jump in my bones.

With a sigh, Mammon released his hold on me. “Yer a lota trouble human.”

Slowing willing my skin to stop crawling, gritting my teeth against the strange turn of events, I faced him. “Why _are_ you watching me?”

Rolling his eyes mammon whipped off his jacket. “Towel.”

And to my horror I fell the shadows behind the flickering light of the candles move and a towel was handed to the demon as if it had materialized there on his command. “Didn’t yer mother teach you about staring?”

“There’s someone in my shadows.”

“Yer in hell. There’s always someone in the shadows.”

For a moment I stood there in the lukewarm water, watching it turn a dirty maroon. The bubbles no longer smelled like roses and French vanilla. It reeked of death and betrayal and blood. Breath choking somewhere behind my sternum, bile rose as I realized I was swimming in it. I would have continued to spiral down into panic if Mammon hadn’t plunged one hand into the water before me. The splash and ripple startled me enough to draw breath and I stared in horror as my blood began to form veins in the water. They crawled and slid away from me in fine lines until converging where Mammon’s hand was open and splayed. It was the first time the reality of my existence hit me enough to still everything around me.

He wasn’t human and there would always be blood.

“Yer clean.” Maybe he could read my thoughts too. Or maybe he just knew. Still, the water was clear and I there wasn’t a speck of red in sight. Pulling his hand out he dried it and rose to his full height. Another bigger fluffier towel appeared from the shadows. This one he held out to me.

I couldn’t help it. “Is that your sin?”

He blinked. “What?”

“Towel magic?”

Scowling he threw it at me and thankfully I caught it before it hit the water. “Dry up. We need to relocate. Asmodeus is particular about his bathroom time. Come on human, chop chop. We ain't got all eternity. Oh wait…”

Right fully chastised, I slopped out of the tub and stood there in a sad little puddle for a moment until I realized he was waiting for me. Watching me. Gritting my teeth and little pissed that he’d put me in my place, I wiggled out of my wet jeans and dragged the soaked t-shirt over my head. When I wrapped the towel around me and met his eyes he only snorted. “Yer bravado is pointless. I’m not interested.” Jutting his chin to a stool nearby he crossed his arms. “Clothes.”

As I dressed a little more discrete with removing the towel, Mammon let out a snicker. “Humans are funny.”

“Because we’re modest?”

“Because yer idiots,” he shot back my barb with equal force. “Ya guard yer chastity like it’s the fuckin’ holy grail. And then some asshole puts it up for sale and ya end up here.” Like he’d slapped me. Frozen with my fingers on the buttons of the non-descript blouse, I stared at him in horror.

“I don’t need a lesson in philosophy.”

“The Great Mammon ain’t got time for philosophy.”

“Let me guess. You’re the slow one. Sloth?”

For a second he looked horrifically furious, a touch of darkness that hadn’t been there before. Like the abyss looking back at you. Then just like that he was back to his smirk. “Ya certainly got her mouth.”

I blinked. “Who?”

Mammon took a slow deliberate breath. “Don’t think I oughta tell ya.”

“Oh I think you oughta.” Glaring and my own irrational fury lit, I took a step closer to him.

He narrowed those eyes at me, a gold line slanting there. “Ya do realize yer already dead. Everything only goes down from here.”

“What could be worse than having your throat slit six hours before your wedding by the man you love?”

I should have known there’s a line. Maybe I meant to cross it before the demon stepped into me, towering over me, those gold eyes swallowing me whole as he growled. “How about doing it again and again and again?”

The room seemed to shake and melt before exploding like carded wool and I was back at the sacrificial alter, my arms tied behind my back, Simon’s hand wrapped around my jaw, the engagement right I’d gotten engraved glistening in the firelight as the knife seared across my flesh and I began to scream.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. We are the darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His words threw chaos into my head. They should have been frightening, but they only seemed…complicated. More.

I wanted to hate him. A part of me wanted to add him to my ‘To Kill’ list. It just seemed to get longer these days. Nights. Whatever was the schedule for hell. Not that I’d seen the sun. Still, it was something that I was no longer looking like the bride from Killbill. Mammon had given me the front row sea to what eternal damnation meant. Over and over.

Well, he said he stopped at one cycle of reliving my death because I screamed like a dying hyena. I remembered it being on repeat. Maybe it was before I got here. Still, he was a bastard for literally explaining the logic of asking for what could be worse. Mental note, do not use human idioms in hell.

We’d exited the bathroom, while I was still getting my bearing. So it took me a few moments to register we were making our way through serpentine hallways. Well, I could only see one wall. And that’s when I realized why.

Mammon was glowing.

He illuminated a radius of golden light around us, and I nearly had a coronary. I mean he is hot and then he glows? This hell was so messed up.

“The light is for yer benefit.”

I blinked. “You see in the dark?” Walking a few feet behind him, we turned corners that I would never be able to remember.

“We are the dark,” he offered in his usually know-it-all, cryptic way.

No time for philosophy my ass. I would realize with time that Mammon really liked telling it like it is. Even if it dragged the ground out from under me. Actually, especially if it could do just that. You’ll see.

But I remembered the abyss I had seen in his eyes when he’d been angry. There had been no other indication. For all practicle purposes, he looked like his usual long limbed, leather jacketed studded self.

“Ya'll get used to it.”

“Can everyone read my mind?” I hoped to hell not. Because seriously, that could be awful. I was dead, in hell and thinking of haunting my murdering fiancé. Also looking at my reluctant albeit twisted guardian demon and thinking vile inhuman thoughts about his glowing.

“No. Yer human. Your kind wears all yer emotions on yer skin. Idiots.”

If wishing could drill holes in the back of heads.

“Starin’ again.”

“I’m glaring. There's a difference.”

Over his shoulder, he shot me a cocky smirk. A touch of mischief twinkling in those Persian blue eyes. “Really? I can't tell.”

I scowled back, unhappy with how he could be gorgeous and still be such an ass and trudged along; this time, more grumpy and less fearful. It would register later that I was a lot less afraid with him. Even if he proceeded to put the fear of the devil in me every chance he got. “So where are we going?”

“Somewhere I can keep ya safe until Lucifer figures out where to put ya.”

I frowned. “Safe from what?” We already left most of the pinks behind, I assumed Asmodeus wasn’t an immediate threat.

“Everything?” He glanced once more over his shoulder, a flash of incredulous wonder on his face. “Ya really don't get where ya are and what it all means, do ya?”

“Hell and damnation. I get it.”

“No, ya don't.” He wound around a grand staircase and we descended slowly. At least I figured it was grand. I couldn’t see more than a few steps around us. I wished he could glow a little more. Then I saw how much of his studded self was reflecting and I figured it was better not to go blind in hell. “That prick of a man sold your soul to the devil,” he reminded me crassly.

I couldn’t help the shiver as the thought of someone owning my soul reared its ugly head. There was also the question why Diavolo had decided to host me instead of throwing me into the pits of hell. And what the hell was a ‘Lilith’?

“And that virgin body of yours was meanta be payment to vile and defile for all eternity,” the demon continued talking as if he was talking about the weather, but I nearly stumbled, as my feet screeched to a halt. Catching a hold of a surprisingly cold marble banister (because really, hell was supposed to be hot), I felt my world thin to a fine point. Mammon stopped a few steps away and turned, one of his feet propped up on the step. He peered up at me curiously. “What's the matter human? Too real Fer ya?”

There were questions, some very indignant squawks and a whole lot of no-fucking-ways fluttering like broken winged moths. Off balance and scared. Just the way he liked me. “Is that what Diavolo...” I couldn’t finish as my throat closed up, but I blurted what I could. “Do most women...”

One snowy eyebrow flicked up. “Got nothing ta do with you bein’ a woman.”

Well shit. And just like that I was a bit speechless. Which was rare for me.

“Uncanny,” Mammon shook his head almost as if he was disappointed. “Violation of yer soul warranted shivers and rape makes ya freeze. Humans are so weird.”

I recoiled like he’d hit me. Maybe he had. Suddenly lost with his logic, I let the sense of what he was saying chase horror and panic around my head like school yard children until he took a step closer and all thought died. _Oh shit, too close._ Looking up into those fathomless blue-gold eyes, I held my breath.

“Nothing is real.” And he spoke softly this time. More explanation that mocking. Almost pitying. Or maybe that was his version of kind. “The security of those clothes on yer back could be a figment of your puritanical subconscious and in truth,” he grinned and I saw fangs, “ya might be walkin around in yer birthday suit.”

The blood drained from my face. “You gave me these.”

“And I can take them away.” He reached out as if to do just that and I jumped back. It only made him grin wider. “Like I said; not my sin.”

 _Kind my ass_ , I exhaled a gust of shocked breath. “Stop toying with me!”

Mammon chuckled a tad amused. “I'm not.” He shrugged. “If I was...”

The words hung ominously for a moment as he swirled his fingers in a flourish. I was about to comment or snark, couldn’t tell with the amount of betrayal in my blood right then. But before I could draw my next breath, I was falling. Not tripping and stumbling no. Full on no ground beneath my feet, plummeting through thin air.

I screamed. And the bastard, I understood just how he could toy with me when I hit the ground with splat right at his feet. I had fallen through the floor and come down from the ceiling. I grit my teeth as pain zinged up through my system. So I could only die once. No one bothered to tell my brain that. Because sprawled at his feet like a pancake, my bones, though unbreakable, felt shattered. I lifted up on my hands to see his wide, fanged grin. “Mammon, you asshoAHHHHHH!”

I made the trip at least twice more.

On my third fall, the pain nearly robbing me of everything but shallow, harsh breaths, he leaned over my prone self and snickered. “Knocked some sense in yet human?”

I’m not a reactive person by nature, I like to think things through. But right there, I just moved. Thoughts set aflame fury blinding me, I sprang with more agility and speed than I’d ever possessed.

It went by in a split second because I had barely managed to get my hands around his neck before moving like lightning, one of his hands closed around my arm like a vice. And I was spun with my own momentum and slammed into the wall. Breath stuck somewhere in my chest, he held me pinned with a force that was not human. It was fluid and effortless. Almost like he hadn’t moved at all.

My predicament was absolute. His forearm pressed diagonally between my breasts, the bony elbow pushing against my windpipe, effectively holding me immobile. The forearm pinning me also held one wrist so tightly against my ribs, I could barely draw breath. My other hand was twisted somewhere behind me, wedged between me and the wall. Which left all of him pressed against everything else. For a moment all I could see was gold. And he was glowing brighter, but for some odd reason, the abyss wasn’t in his eyes this time. In fact, he almost looked pleased. “Why…do you look happy asshole?”

“Because yer finally listenin'.” He leaned into me, his nose nearly touching mine and set everything to red hot humiliation. “There ain't no point in givin' anything little virgin, unless you’re givin’ it yer all.” The purr of his voice turned other settings to red and I couldn’t figure out why the word ‘virgin’ seemed to burn like a hot poker in my side. “It's damned lucky your fiancé had no idea who he was messin’ with or ya coulda been more than a sacrifice.”

Teeth grinding together, I rallied what was left of my dignity and glared at him. “Like?”

“You coulda been a war.” Mammon pressed harder and this time there was no denying where I was feeling the heat. I was probably staring at him again. I mean can you blame me? My entire perception of personal boundaries was being turned on his head. When I didn’t react, he rolled his eyes and stepped away, leaving me sprawled against the wall like a sordid heroine. 

His words threw chaos into my head. They should have been frightening, but they only seemed…complicated. More. The run away tongue came through whatever sense he’d shaken loose before. “Is the face for my benefit too?”

He blinked. “What?”

“You said the light was for my benefit. Is the pretty face and eyes for my benefit too?”

“He musta _really_ cut something vital when he used that knife on ya!” The Demon scowled and started stomping down the stairs again. But his glow was back to normal.

And I tried not to smile. I mean this thing had treated me like a rag doll and beat up on me a little, but he suddenly looked very young, very uncomfortable and very very blushy. “Not really used to compliments are you?”

“Shut up human. We're getting some food and then I'm lookin’ for a cage, so ya can keep yer eyes to yerself. It ain't cheap to look at the great Mammon.”

I should had been bruised. He’d thrown me around enough times, but now that the shock had ebbed, there was nothing. No aches. No pains. It made me think. Perhaps Mammon was right. Perhaps my subconscious was still trying to remind me of my human confines. The way I had moved, even if he’d countered my lunge without missing a heartbeat, had been unthinkable before this. Not that springing on a demon had crossed my mind. But before today, I never would have let my fury go the way I did.

I followed after him as the strange dichotomy of this demon wrapped around me like a shroud. It felt…safe. “You eat,” I asked amicably. The banter just came.

“Best not ask what's on the menu.”

“Not me?”

And just like that, his cheeky grin was back. “Not for me. But we're goin' to the kitchen. Ya should be careful around Beelz.”

“Uh, what's a Beelz?”

“My younger brother Beelzbub. He's gluttony.”

“Ah! Wait, you still haven't told me what sin you are.”

I fell into step beside him and he slid his sunrise blue eyes to me. “That's right human I haven't.”

TO BE CONTINUED...


	5. How not to get eaten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please god, let Cerberus really be a puppy. Just this once.

I learned this the hard way: Hell doesn’t let you be complacent.

Because the way these boys are made is an illusion. It was the reason I asked Mammon if he had another face. Because no one with the face of an angel could ever be the sins I came face to face with. Beelzebub, Avatar of Gluttony was a contrast even more stark than the brothers I had met before.

The kitchen, if it could be called that, was a large chamber of overflowing pantry and nearly invisible counters amidst a throne room surrounded by sacrifice. There was just no other word for it. Because in the center of all the abundance was the sprawled form of one High demon of gluttony. He reclined there amid a stock of carelessly stacked sacks of ripe red apples, a barrel of overflowing wine, a bundle bursting with fresh sausage and cuts of nondescript meat. And he lavished there as if they were silk and brocade, coating his fingers, his lips, his skin with hints of red, and gold and orange.

It was hard to look away from him and there was no denying the need to salivate with just how indulgent he looked munching on what could only have been attached to the juicy, gravy-roasted, leg of what I hoped to hell wasn’t a human. It was all kinds of wrong to be hungry suddenly.

And then they reminded me why this was hell.

Maybe there were four. Or eight. I couldn’t really tell if the men and women strewn about his ‘throne’ were the supplicants or the food. There were no chains, there were no clothes and there was no need to remind myself that I was staring.

Beside me, Mammon huffed. “Really brother? A feast? Again?”

Beelzebub looked up his eyes dragging away lazily as if he couldn’t bear to drag his eyes away from the half-eaten roasted leg. “Mammon?”

“Get decent will ya!” Mammon stomped forward, making a fuss, shooing and hissing at the humans as they skittered away.

My eyes. They were glued to the young girl crawled like a serpent between Beelzebub’s feet, her mouth down into a bowl of something red and iridescent. And the sounds she made would definitely make a virgin blush. I spun around, hands clasped behind my back, eyes squeezed closed and I thought of my warty PE teacher. My crackly boss and her mossy teeth. Anything to scrub the image from my mind.

Thank god for Mammon. A few well-placed growls that sounded like hells bells and the bodies rushed by me with a titter of unhappy wails and girly giggling.

I clamped my gasping mouth shut and willed the bile back into my stomach.

“Awww hell Mammon I wasn’t done with that.”

“Yeah, ya were. I need ya to sober up. Why do ya invite the peanut gallery? Ya never partake in what lies before ya anyway!”

“I do.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Mammon huffed and I yelped when his hand wrapped around my wrist and I was dragged back into the scene of the crime.

Thankfully Beelz was on his feet, his thumb stuck in his mouth as he nibbled on the pad, those strangely violet tinged eyes still swimming in whatever ecstasy had taken him. Then that hazy gaze honed on me and snapped to petrifying clarity. “It’s her.”

“Duh! That’s what I’ve been sayin’! Ya gota watch her.”

We both turned to Mammon in surprise. And just for a moment I thought he looked uncomfortable, before those arms were crossed and that haughty confidence was back. “What?”

“Mammon, I’m not done eating.”

“Ya are for now.”

“Wait!” I interjected, holding up a hand as I stepped between the two brothers, reminding them I was also there. “You're going to leave me with him!?” I pointed to the very tall, very broad and muscled High demon of Gluttony who for some scary reason, did not look like he ate for a living. For a moment I let my eyes run over his fur-collared, jock perfect jacket and pants. Damn, but God had been cruel. To be me and be presented with all this beautiful fresh, delicious…fucking hell. I was a very bad person.

Whipping my head away, I closed my eyes and counted to 10. Forwards, then backwards before drawing a deep breath. Then I glared at the silver haired demon who was supposed to be my protector. “You can’t!”

Mammon snorted and rolled his eyes. “I have a life ya know.”

“But Lucifer said you have to do it!” I reminded him and when that didn’t warrant agreement, I began to panic. “You said everything was after me!” When he moved to step away, I grabbed the edge of his blown leather jacket. “You can't just leave!”

“Hey, hands off the designer wear.” He frowned and yanked his person out of my clutches. “Ya realize I'm the high demon of hell? Second only to Lucifer? Yer inability ta remember I don't gotta do anything if I don't want to, is nauseating.”

“Lucy did say it was your job,” Beelz pipped in for good measure. But while I had been panicking and trying to keep Mammon from leaving, he’d picked up an apple and bit into it. I stared at him. I will not lie. I felt like he was eating the apple of eden and I was satan.

Yeah, Mammon could NOT leave!

Hissing out a breath, I stepped into Mammon’s personal space, and it was heartening to see him draw back an inch, if only surprised at my audacity. “You can’t leave me here,” I hissed, my nose nearly touching his.

“The great mammon has shit to do OK!” He took an exceptionally wide step away from me and grinned. “Like I got a country to drown in debt.”

“What! No!”

Mammon held up a hand before I could grab him again, a touch of gold to his eyes. I could see why the occupants of the room had vacated in such a hurry. Those beautiful blue-gold eyes could be deadly when they weren’t swimming with mischief. Then he seemed to realize what he had revealed and the smirk was back as he met his brother’s eyes over my shoulder. “If she misbehaves B, just eat a finger or two. Lucy won’t miss those.”

“Hey! I will miss them!” I stared at him in horror wondering just how much of that was a joke. Looking sideways at Beelz, I wrapped my fingers into tight fists and Mammon made his escape.

For a moment the High Demon of gluttony watched me with apathetic eyes then he sighed and ran a hand through his orange hair. “Better start eating.”

I stepped away almost as widely as Mammon had.

Beelzebub looked wistfully at me, his gaze sliding over my frame and sent my heart skittering in my ribs. And not for the reasons I would have liked. “If only,” he lamented. “I haven't had a good human sacrifice in weeks. But I can't eat you. Better eat the other.”

Eyes going abnormally wide, I watched him reach behind a pile of potatoes or whatever strange root they were and spun around. “Oh God oh God oh God.” That’s when I noticed the shadows swell around the dimly lit kitchen and they began to seethe and grow. “What the hell!”

“Oh you shouldn't say that around here. Evoking his name could upset a lot of things.” I didn’t realize I had taken an instinctive step towards Beelz so when he spoke, his voice was right over my shoulder.

I peeked at him. “The darkness is alive?”

“Sure. Isn’t everything?” Beelz mumbled between munches.

Spinning back around before I could truly see what he was eating, I tried not to hyperventilate and cursed Mammon to high heaven. Or hell in this case. “Ohg... Fuck. Please let me that wasn't a human leg.”

Silence.

“Beelz?!”

The Avatar of Gluttony snickered. “It's ram.”

Shoulders sagging with relief I turned around to grin at him only to freeze at the sight of him grinning with his beautiful blood and gravy tainted mouth. _Oh mama._

Unable to stifle a groan that was caught between disgust and turned on, I put my back to him gain. “Yeah that's not better.” I plugged my ears. “Poke me when you're done.”

After a while of trying to drown out the sounds of his eating and humming there was a surprisingly gentle tap on my elbow. But I didn’t dare turn around just yet. “Did you wipe your mouth?”

There was a huff and a scuffle before he grumbled a “Yeah.”

Shuffling around slowly, I opened my eyes and suddenly felt a wave of warm fuzzies go through me. I would learn later that his super powers didn’t include the need to cuddle with him constantly, so I figured it was just my own perversion. The big, muscled, grumpy demon was kind of endearing. And he still had a spot of sauce on his chin. Shaking my head, I touched my chin. “Ah you missed a spot right there.”

His brow wrinkled. “Don't think so, but OK.”

And then before I could draw breath, he had leaned forward and licked me from my throat to my bottom lip.

It was as if he’d put ice into my bones, my arms still in the air from where they had accommodated his girth. I wanted to scream. Maybe I was on the inside, but everything else had disconnected. And he’d done it with such guileless innocence it was mind-boggling.

But there was a new light to his eyes as he looked at me and licked his lips. “Damn you're tasty. Better eat more.”

Mobilized by his words, I whipped around, eyes still filled with horror and stuck my fingers into my ears. It took two of three tries until Beelz finally came to stand beside me. Mouth wiped and looking somewhat satiated. “So?”

“So.” I offered him a tremulous smile. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. Might even be better than Mammon. At least he wouldn’t pick on me or take heinous pleasure in throwing me around. Maybe the licking I could get used to. Could give me a heart attack, but I could live through that now.

“Mammon said to put you somewhere safe.” Beelz pondered the notion, tapping the tip of his chin. “I think I'll put you in Cerberus's pit. No one goes there except Lucifer.”

“The what now?” I gaped up at him. “What the hell is wrong with you people! No. No one is putting me in a pit.”

“He's a good puppy. Only eats sinners.”

“I'm human!” I threw up my hands gesturing to all my humanness in panicked fury. “We sin like nobody's business!”

“Hmmm. Didn't think of that.”

I was suddenly horrified that my fate was in the hands of this demon who only had food on the brain. “I never thought I'd say this, but I miss that asshole.”

“That's not very smart. He did cut your...”

“I'm talking about Mammon!”

He blinked startled, honestly thrown for a loop. “No one misses Mammon. But yeah. He is an asshole. Like the one time he got a string of Asmodeus's panties and…”

I shoved my fingers back in my ears and started counting back from a hundred.

There was a soft tap on my shoulder.

Pulling my hands away I sighed heavily, feeling very weary now. “Can we find a nice comfy place to put me, preferably with a bed? A decidedly empty bed that I can be the only occupant of.”

“Why? Sleep is a human thi... Oh.” He trailed off and I watched him take a tally of all the possibilities before shaking his head. “Nope. And I'm no good with conjuring up things. Hmmm. Cerberus's pit it is.” And like his lovely sacks of food, up I went over his shoulder in one swipe of his arm.

“Gah! No! Stop, put me down! STOP touching my ass, Beel!”

“Ahem. Aww hell. Sorry was just adjusting you.” And he clambered on, making his way out of the kitchen and back into the hallways. This time I was surrounded by darkness and considering how high I was off the ground and the strength of his grip. There was nowhere else to go but where he was taking me. Tired after the day’s events, at least I thought it had been a day, I gave up fighting and put my chin in my hand, elbow propped against the solid immovable mass of his shoulder blade. Inevitability came with a strange calm.

We went down a spiral staircase as random horrifying facts about Cerberus fluttered through my head. Three-headed guardian of hell. Then I remembered the Playstation version. Which reminded me of Kratos and that lead to me gritting my teeth, lest I compare the very fine musculature on display from where I hung down Beelzebub’s back. Nice. Oh boy.

Nothing made me wish more for amnesia instead of my eidetic memory right now. This would be burned into my memory and the words ‘buns of steel’ took on a completely new meaning with the Avatar of gluttony.

My stupid memory was what had gotten me into this mess in the first place. Maybe if I had goldfish memory I wouldn’t still be able to recall Simon’s rat-bastard face with such clarity. Or hear his promises, or recall the vows we’d written together.

_Please god, let Cerberus really be a puppy. Just this once._

“Here we are. Don't mind the landing. But we can't really go in through the door. Cerberus kind of takes a limb every time,” he explained calmly as he pulled me over his shoulder and held me in his arms in a great mockery of the bride I would have been.

Clutching his perfect shoulders, I watched him with growing foreboding. “He attacks you? Then he's definitely going to eat me! Put me down!”

“Oh these are Lucifer's dungeons. They have enchanted bars. No one gets past those except him. Not even Cerberus. That's why I gota drop you here.”

“Drop wha…” I craned me neck down and my eyes nearly came out of my head when saw the fathomless hole he was holding me over. Nothing but darkness underneath. Head snapping up, I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. There was nothing I could have said that could encompass what I wanted to say.

Beelz winced, a tad discomfited by my shocked silence. GOOD! “Sorry, it'll probably hurt. But you won't die. Seeing as you're already dead. See ya.”

“Beelzbuahhhhhh!”

And I thought Mammon was an unfeeling asshole. The fall this time was nearly endless. My breath had stalled somewhere between my lungs. Arms and legs flailing I had no idea which was up or down as I fell through the darkness. The landing came as a surprise, and if my bones weren’t undead, I would be shattered to a million pieces. But as it were, I was in one piece, on my face, and more angry than breathless with pain.

At least Mammon’s lesson had registered. My human skin was just that. Human. Down here, it was all upended. Furious and completely helpless to take any semblance of control of my unlife, I smacked the ground and screamed as loud and long as my lungs allowed.

When I was spent, I rotated my shoulder and sat up with a hiss. Okay so my brain hadn’t completely caught up. My jaw and chest was killing me. Rubbing the residual stings away, I looked around to find that I was indeed in a dirty dungeon pit with one solitary light bulb flickering in the corner. “Fucking perfect.” I was so sick of being tossed around! _No more miss nice girl!_

GROWL.

 _Mommy!_ Blood freezing in my veins, I craned my neck to peer into the darkness behind the simple iron bars and lost my breath as big paws with claws the size of my head became visible and the puppy’s muzzle came into the light. Dripping, snarling and full of teeth.

Scrambling back against the back wall of my cell I watched the big head come into view, then another and another, red eyes burning, saliva dripping and hissing like acid. “Nice Puppy,” I squeaked.

“Hold still.” The whisper came from somewhere behind the snarling sniffing dog and I blinked. It was soft and completely devoid of any emotion. Maybe a figment of my own imagination. Or… “God?”

There was a furious snort. “Don't move. He's just scenting you.”

Holding perfectly still as instructed, I let my eyes adjust to the dark as more of the massive dog began to materialize and Cerberus slowly sniffed around the bars. Thankfully Beelz hadn’t lied. He couldn’t get in so I visibly relaxed.

His bark, like thunder, made me jump as the acid spit came through the bars nearly landing on my leg as I jerked away. “Oh myg…hell!”

“I said hold still!” The voice snapped.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I was barely breathing. But sure enough, the three-headed dog took another whiff of my cage and slowly receded back into the dark.

“He’s gone.”

Tell that to my legs. They were locked as were my fingers clawing into the dirty floor.

“For fucks sake breathe already!”

The fury behind his words threw the breath from my lungs. “Uh…thanks.”

“Hmmm. Human?”

“Yeah.”

“Tsk. Lucifer has a sick sense of humor.”

Willing my legs to finally move, I stood gingerly avoiding the acid spit as I made my way to the bars. “Are you?”

“No.”

Peering out into the meager light, I could make out a slight figure in the shadow of another cell. He sat in the shadows. “I'm Storm.”

There was as stir but no response. I waited a little longer, the expectation clearly written on my face as I wrapped my hand around the bars finding them cold. Once again I wondered why everything wasn’t hot. Except for the demons.

The voice sighed at the silence. “I couldn't care. Hmph. Reduced to speaking with a filthy human.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Filthy? I'll have you know Mammon already gave me an impromptu bath.”

“Are you his new pet?”

“Eyow, no!” I wrinkled my nose and suddenly the scene I’d seen in the kitchen flashed across my vision thanks to my ability to photograph everything with my mind. And then my imagination put Mammon in the middle and everything spiraled to chaos after that. “He has pet humans?”

Again the silence stretched until he the answer burst out of him as if it pained him to speak it. “I must be really lonely to want to know why you're here.”

Well two could play at that game.

His raspy apathetic voice morphed into a snarl. “Why the fuck are you here?”

“Well aren't you a ray of sunshine,” I snickered. “If you must know. Beelz threw me in here to keep me safe.”

“What the hell from?”

“Everything apparently.”

“Hmph. Clever.”

“Is it?” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm from my tone.

“Considering the only ones who know you're down here are the dog and an old prisoner. I think you're gold.”

He should have just shot me instead. Dejected and tired, fell back against the wall and slid down. “I wish. So what're you in for?”

“…”

I rolled my eyes. “Might as well talk to the filthy human. Unless Cerberus is carrying conversation as well as acid breath.”

The voice sighed dramatically and rather tragically. Then he spit out the answer and changed everything. “I'm Belphagor.”

TO BE CONTINUED...


	6. Dirty Little Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These creatures were not human. Their moral compass was on a completely different plane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to update, I've been struggling with a really bad case of anxiety and burnout. I finally took some time off and I'm doing what calms me best. Writing about hell :D Promise to post more soon! Thank you to everyone who's reading and especially my reviewers!

Being confined gives one a lot of time to come to terms with things. Like being murdered. Like being murdered by your fiancé before your wedding day. Like being murdered by your fiancé before your wedding day and deciding you want to bring him to hell.

And then realizing he’d be there with you.

“We could always throw him down here.”

I frowned at the shadow across the dirty floor. I could see flickers of his form. Sometimes I caught a flare of purple that could have been his eyes. But with the flickering bulbs, or magic light or whatever the hell it was, I wasn’t sure what was real and what was an illusion in the dungeon. Even the ephemeral click and thump of Cerberus moving through the serpentine hallways of Lucifer’s dungeon. Lucifer. The worst of them all. “Then you’d have company and Lucifer would never want that.”

There was a chuckle. “You’re starting to get it.”

Yeah. We’d been talking. What else could I do? “I’ve been here a while.” Then I frowned. “How does one really keep track of days here anyway?”

“Why would we need to keep track?”

I question was simple but the answer was not. Humans always calculated things in terms of time. Adjusting. Readjusting. Remembering. Forgetting. Shit, I had no idea what to do with my notions if I didn’t know how long I’d been dead? Would Simon have gotten his power and moved on. Found a nice witch? Conquered the world?

“Relax Storm Walker. You’ll get used to it.”

I snorted and reverted to grumpy. “Yeah, but when? How do I know I’m not already used to it? I can’t remember because I don’t know how long its been? Should I be feeling this weird calm? This comradery with the devil’s spawn because one gave me a bath and the other didn’t eat me?”

“Beelz would never eat you.”

“Beelz licked me!”

There was an explosion of a laugh. Like it had not been used in a while before a clearing of the throat came and I could tell he was doing his damnedest to pretend he hadn’t. “Beelzebub licked you?”

The corner of my mouth quirked. “Although, to be honest, I think it was my fault.”

“Hmmm,” was his non-committal response.

I rolled my eyes. I knew that usually came right after he realized he let me see a little more of his emotions. How he craved to learn more about this twin brother and the rest of them. Even Lucifer. Of course, right after a reveal he would be all cool and back to his ‘I really don’t give a shit about a filthy human, brood brood, growl growl.’

Then Lucifer came with the crash of thunder and lightning.

My heart plunging somewhere in my gut, I was barely on my feet before I heard Cerberus let out a pitiful whine and then the flared, black-winged high demon of hell stood before me.

Lucifer looked livid. “I'm going to kill Mammon.”

I should have been afraid. And a part of me was cowering in some corner of my cell, but another bigger, stronger and older part of me was crossing her arms and grinning at him. “Can I watch?”

I will not deny this though. This guy could freeze your heart in your chest and suck your life out through your eyes because the glare nearly made me faint. It was like looking at your own death and then some more.

I licked my parched throat and stood up straight, hands beside my hips. “Right. Shutting up now.”

Lucifer seemed to hold his breath before he sighed and pulled the metal door open like it had never been locked. “Unfortunate that you ended up down here.”

“I think it's karma big brother.” My previously silent companion in the dungeons finally spoke. Lazy drawling and clearly forcing himself not to reach out and scalp the raven haired demon. “Considering your dirty little secret is out.”

Now that I was outside, I looked around the dark demon and saw him. For a moment, I felt something flicker in my gut. He might have been Beelzbub’s twin but Belphagor was a sight to behold.

Long limber arms leaning out of the bars, I found him leering at Lucifer. There was a deadly darkness to those eyes. He did share them with his twin, but they were completely different. Darker, maddened and so very bruised. I stared for a moment. Mammon would be so pissed, but can you blame me? He was dressed in a ratty old t-shirt that might have been a pretty cyan at one point and combat pants, but it was those horns. Unlike his brother’s which were usually sleek and curling away, his horns were like a ram’s. Big, angry and curling right at you.

I took a step away when I realized I’d been speaking to the high demon of sloth. Baring myself. Speaking of my death to him as if he was a fellow bunkmate.

Damn, but the darkness had been comforting.

Lucifer ground his teeth, the sound of it like glass breaking and he glared first at his brother. Long and hard. Then turned the full force of his deathly glare on me. “If you value what's left of your existence human you will not speak of this to anyone.”

I should learn to keep my mouth shut. I should really be more afraid, but I pointed to his imprisoned brother and offered him my best ‘dumb blonde’ smile. “You mean capturing your own brother and imprisoning him for all eternity?”

Lucifer glowed a pretty red.

I flicked my gaze up at Belphegor to find him smirking wickedly, deadly and full of licking hate. “Yeah that should be easy. Slothy who.”

Lucifer’s hand was like a brand on my wrist as he proceeded to drag me out. I shouldn’t have, but I glanced over my shoulder to see Belphegor blow me a kiss. The sudden chill of that promise sent my mind careening back to our conversation.

> _Belphegor had this nasty habit of whistling. And the whistling itself should have been welcome over the silence, but it was like scratching nails._
> 
> _“Will you please stop that?”_
> 
> _“Why? I’m done chatting.”_
> 
> _“Aww Bell-Bell, I thought we were getting to be buds.”_
> 
> _“When hell freezes over. And if you call me that I will find a way to gut you with my bare hands.”_
> 
> _“Wow. It is getting a little chilly.”_
> 
> _“…”_
> 
> _“Really? The dreaded silent treatment?”_
> 
> _“If I was there I'd be eating your flesh and spitting out bones as I grind your soul under my feet!”_
> 
> _I won’t lie as the shiver worked its way down my spine, he sounded scary as all hell. Like he could do it too. “What is with you all and this obsession with eating me?”_
> 
> _“Hmph. You're right rotting human flesh isn't appetizing at all. I'll just flay you layer by layer and let you disintegrate like carded dandelions.”_
> 
> _“It's wrong that it almost sounds poetic, right?”_
> 
> _“...Yeah. You're broken.”_
> 
> _I sighed. Maybe I was. But the silence of the dungeon was so much harder. It reminded me of the place between bleeding out and getting to Diavolo’s court. “Right.”_
> 
> _It took him some time. But he did eventually speak, even if it was pulled out of him like pulling teeth. “So what're you in for?”_
> 
> _I couldn’t help the smile. “Interested in the filthy human now, are we?”_
> 
> _“Answer the damned question!” He snarled._
> 
> _“Yeesh. Fine. I'm a...” Fucking hell, I did not want to admit this one. But what the hell was I supposed to say? “My fiancé sacrificed me the night before our wedding.” There was complete silence so I rolled my eyes and threw up my hands. “I’m a sacrificial virgin, alright!”_
> 
> _“... Bull.”_
> 
> _That made me giggle. Well that was interesting. I hadn’t done that in years. “No bull.”_
> 
> _“Shit.” He seemed frustrated with my answer. “That's not a good thing to be right now.”_
> 
> _“What about you?”_
> 
> _“I've never been a virgin anything.”_
> 
> _“Belphegor!”_
> 
> _“Hmph. Fine. I'm lucifer's dirty little secret.” When he didn’t elaborate and I stared into the darkness of his cell silently he finally spit it out. “Can't believe I'm wasting breath on a fil... I'm Beelzbub's twin.”_
> 
> _Mouth dropping open, I was on my feet and clasping the bars as I tried to make him out. “Shut up! Tell me More!”_
> 
> _“What the hell does that even mean?”_
> 
> _“What did you do? Go angel or something!”_
> 
> _“Please don't be profane.”_
> 
> _I loved how things translated down here. “Sooo?”_
> 
> _“Lucifer killed our little sister and I found out.”_
> 
> _Suddenly my ease with this demon turned to a rock and fell so deep down my throat, I was nearly choking. What the hell is one supposed to say to something like that. And Lucifer. What little I heard from Mammon, he seemed like a pretty righteous demon. Damn, but I was an idiot. These creatures were not human. Their moral compass was on a completely different plane. But killing a sister? Son of a…_
> 
> _“Yeah. He is quite the SOB.”_
> 
> _I froze. “Did you just read my mind?”_
> 
> _“Mmmm. No.” There was a shuffle and felt something wet move in the shadows. “I can practically taste your emotions. Righteousness tastes like sweet and sour blood pudding.”_
> 
> _Jerking away from the bars, I swallowed the sudden feeling of intrusion and the bile rose. And to think I was empathizing with him. “Ew.”_
> 
> _“You wanted to help me before.” I could practically hear him lick his lips and I knew he could tell exactly what I was feeling. It was worse than him being able to read my mind or Mammon being able to read my body language!_
> 
> _Gritting my teeth, I glared into the darkness and hoping to hell he could taste how indignant I was. “Stop doing that.”_
> 
> _“Nope.” He snickered heinously._
> 
> _Why were the pretty ones always such jerks? “I don't want to help you!” I snapped, but then came the silence and I think we’ve already established that’s worse than all hell. Who am I kidding? “But if I were to heaven forbid contemplate the possibility...”_
> 
> _And just like that I could practically taste his vile glee. Maybe it went both ways. “Let's see now. Here's what you do.”_

I let Lucifer drag me out of the dungeons, but it felt like I left something down there. Like I’d forgotten it behind.

And Belphegor continued to whistle off key.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	7. Spirit of Vengeance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That righteous fire singing my veins now had a name.

All my friends have been simple and I realized why I had trusted Simon when he told me we should take it slow. There’s was safety in not rocking the boat. I had lived simply. School. College. Man. Marriage. Like living in a bubble while the world went to hell around me. It shouldn’t have been different. Being in actual hell. Like backyard shootings, like turning your back to a murderer. A warlock. Trusting the devil.

I should have just taken the heathens advice when they whispered to me in my nightmares: There was no point in being a nice girl.

So this time when I felt the irrational fury while staring at the calmly strutting demon leading me down those hallways, I let it bleed into my skin.

It shouldn’t have stung. Killing a sibling. I didn’t even know if these creatures had family. Or the bonds that tied them together. But in that kitchen, there had been something between Mammon and Beelz. And even in the dungeon, those bruises in Belphegor’s eyes were too personal. They couldn’t be so raw and bleeding if they hadn’t come from love. I knew, because I still felt the ghost sting of the knife in my throat.

Swallowing hard, I wondered how Lucifer would read me. On his tongue, in his mind, with his eyes. Because so far, I’d been an open book to these demons.

And just like that he answered. “You shouldn’t listen to him.”

There was a tick in my temple. Like I wanted to spring on him. A part of me knew I could already do it. But Lucifer wasn’t Mammon and I had no idea why I was feeling so raw. Itchy. Wronged. Like I want to hurt Lucifer “I thought we were pretending he doesn’t exist.”

He slanted a red glance at me over his shoulder. “That’s not what you plan to do.”

What I planned to do was nothing close to what I really wanted to do. To him. A muscle worked in my jaw and there was pity in his eyes. It was as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. Already, most of the demons had told me no one was in my head except for Diavolo, and he had graciously stayed silent since he’d turned my care into the hands of these high demons. So why the hell did I always feel naked and bare to these things?

He threw open a dark, double door and I jerked to a stop at the threshold. Inside, hell had turned over.

The room was large. Too large for any living room I had ever seen. But where the rest of this place had felt like snippets of reality in an endless hallways of darkness, this place was different. A large roaring fire under a hearth that held the statue of a big dragon curled and looking into a sprawl of plush comfortable couches. It wasn’t the furniture, it was the way, the cushions had deep spots, signs of wear. Some insanely human knickknacks scattered here and there. Wireless headphones. A can of beer. Pink bunny slippers. A box of what looked like pizza, glossy magazines. And a wall of weapons, some recognizable, and others I’d never before seen in the human world. All used.

“You’re a very clever demon.”

Lucifer paused in the middle of the room and turned halfway to watch me down the line of this shoulder. Imperious and knowing. I would come to hate that about him. “Thank you.”

It was not a compliment. And he knew it. “Is this stage supposed to put me at ease?”

This time he turned around fully, arms crossed and looking very pleased with himself. “It is neither an illusion, nor a weapon. You can uncoil all that righteous anger. What ever he said to you is most likely a fabrication.”

“You don’t know what he said.”

“I know it has sparked that fine arc of fury in your blood Miss Walker.”

It was meant to be soothing, but it lit another fire in my belly. I felt as if he was looking down at me. A child. A petulant, stupid, little _child_. “Are you going to explain why I’m here?”

For a few moments he just watched me, maybe wondering if he should; if I deserved it. “I am.” Then his mouth quirked into a wicked half-smile. “Just not at the moment. We have other more pressing matters.”

“I want to know NOW!”

Those eyes lit red. “You will watch that tone with me human.” Something sharp and jagged cut into my stomach and I realized it was fear. It was a heartbeat, but he was suddenly in my personal space, leaning over me. This time there was no room for argument. “What did Belphie say to you?”

The nickname was endearing but it did nothing to calm the way I wanted to hurt him. He scared the bejeezuz out of me and I honestly didn’t know what lying to him would mean. “That you’re not a very nice demon,” I hedged. The fear tightened into a fist in my gut and I shuddered. Taking the step away from him wounded my pride but gave me room enough to finally draw breath. “He said you killed your sister.”

If the words struck him, Lucifer did not react. “Would you like me to deny it?”

I stared up at him. Out of all of them, this one I could not read. “Did you?”

“Do you think dying makes you an expert on death?”

The question confused me. What did he mean? That her death was different or was he death? “That is not what I asked.”

“What you are asking has complex explanations and ramifications that you cannot possibly fathom. But there is only one truth you must know Miss Walker.” And I knew what he would say next would be written in stone where this demon was concerned. “I will do anything necessary for my family’s safety.”

He walked away from me but the contrast of his chilling words and their context raised the hair on my skin. Off-balance, the calm I had found in those dirty dungeons dissipating fast, I swallowed down the irrational need to attack him. I could very clearly see it would not go well for me.

“Look Storm…”

I snapped before I could stop myself. “Don’t use my name like you know me!”

“But I do know you.” This time his serene smile was sinister. “Remember when Diavolo said you have a choice.”

“Yeah and then he proceeded to show me how I don't.”

“Lucky for you, here's the first one.” To my horror he held out two weapons to me. One a long serrated blade and the other a two headed spear. “Choose.”

“What?” I stared at him incredulously. Did he not realize what putting a weapon in my hand would do right now? Or maybe he felt he’d instilled enough fear of the devil in me. Either way I didn’t want one!

But one look at those strange weaponry sent my mind careening into chaos. Like I did want them and it scared the hell out of me.

“I know you’re lost and I wish we had more time to talk, but tell me which one you want.” His words were surprisingly gentle, but I could get no solace from them.

“Why the hell would I want one?”

Again, he paused as if unsure if I deserved an answer. So when he spoke, his words were tinged with unease. “All furies need a weapon.”

Something stilled inside me and I blinked up at him, my head suddenly heavy, a strange pull in my hands as he held those unfamiliar blades out to me. “Furry what now?”

“Furies!” The demon hissed then took a deep breath, as if reining in his anger. “I must do something that will require a weapon and I cannot leave you here alone while I do it. I had meant to acclimatize you slowly but my stupid little brother has gone and sped up my timeline. Take the weapon that calls to you.”

I took a step away. “No. I can't use either of them and what the hell is a fury?”

“Furies are vengeance.”

Simon's face flashed before my eyes and suddenly the weapons he held out began to seethe. They glowed like they wanted me now. And I saw Belphegor in the blade, I saw my fiancé and I saw every single face I had ever wanted to add to my list. You know the one. We all have one. Lost in his meager explanation, I could tell one thing was simple. That righteous fire singing my veins now had a name.

“No.”

“Just take one.”

“I will not!”

Eyes narrowing he pushed the sword out to me and like a fist in my gut it staggered me back a step. Gasping, I wrapped my arms around my stomach, fists clenched, as panic built like a tower inside me. I did not want these things! But when he held out the spear I felt something flare underneath my skin. Like it knew me. There was a satisfying hum in Lucifer’s voice as he nodded. “This glaive is called Riven.”

Giving it a name only seemed to make the throbbing worse in my head. Riven was a metal pole wrapped in bright red ribbons of leather. Both ends clawed open to a blade that flared open like a short, thick cutlass. But it curved in curls that arced back. I could almost see it cut into flesh and drag out pieces when pulled back. There was nothing about the weapon that should appeal to me. But I had my fists closed around the shaft before I even realized I had reached for it.

“This will make carrying it easier.” I startled when his hands wrapped around my own and twisted the two sections of the glaive. In a heartbeat, it clicked and closed into a small ten inch stick. “Let’s go.”

Belatedly I realized he was halfway to the door when I chased after him. “Wait! You have to explain why I'm furious.”

“Furies!”

“Lucifer!” I caught his arm.

For a mere fraction of a second I saw fangs and burning red eyes, but his face was a mask of calm. Dropping his arms, I resisted the need to clean my hand on my pant leg and offered him a silent apology. “Where are we going?”

Summoning on his infinite patience Lucifer paused in front of a strange green door. “To save Mammon.”

And just like that, everything stilled. “From what?”

“Witches.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this monster is getting out of hand, but you guys seem to be enjoying it. Let's see where it goes.


	8. Slipping Into Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was blood everywhere. I was covered in it. But this time it was not my own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your reviews. I haven't written action in a while, so apologies if this didn't flow quite right. I played 'Wreak Havoc' by Skylar Grey from the Suicide Squad on repeat and this is what came out!

“Really? A witch town?”

“You talk as if you know where we are.”

“Cobblestone. Pointy houses. Germaniums. All we're missing are the pitchforks and chants.”

“Perceptive.” Lucifer chuckled as we walked down the street. He was guiding me down an early morning sidewalk. There were a few people out on the roads. The bakeries were preparing to open and the soft light of the sun was a dreamy daffodil yellow. The first time I’d stepped out of the door to open blue skies, I hadn’t really reacted. It was a clear sky. Like any other.

But slowly, as I took in my surroundings, I felt the sting in my eyes, the disuse of neuro receptors that had probably been redundant in the darkness of hell. And slowly, like a creeping spider it crawled into my mind. I was…home. A reality that was no longer my own, but had been. And the nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks.

It was a small favor we weren’t anywhere close to my life. Not to mention anywhere where I could possibly take a plane back to Simon. You know. Because I _missed_ him so much. Riven burned against the flesh of my back where I’d tucked it into the belt of my jeans, under my blouse. Vengeance indeed.

The door we’d come through had opened into an alley in a small town called Bergheim in Alsace, France. Lucifer had been nice enough to launch into a tirade of facts as we made our way into the town square and around a fountain which bore the town’s coat of arms. Apparently this part of the French countryside was well known for its witch history and despite the trials, some had managed to remain. Some who had been alive back in the 1500.

It didn’t matter that I was still wearing the non-descript white blouse and blue jeans. The people were opulently dressed, but they were French. A rough pony-tailed, too tall woman walking beside the gorgeous red and black that was Lucifer? You can imagine I wasn’t a favorite. Gritting my teeth, I pasted a pleasant smile on my face that I hoped would seem as if he and I were out on a stroll. Even if I wanted to put my hand into his chest and pull out his heart. Damn, but my aspirations were getting more violent since I died.

Lucifer’s hand caught mine and I blinked at him as he slid his shoulder against mine. There was no way in hell he heard me. “The hell?”

“You’re drawing attention.”

“Step away from me Lucifer.”

Smiling, he proceeded to wrap an arm around my shoulders, and pulled me into his side as his mouth pressed against my ear. “Or what?”

I wedged one hand up into his side and with a soft snarl shoved him away from me.

“Death has made you prickly,” he grinned wickedly and winked. Enjoying the tick in my jaw.

“You did not know me before,” I fell into step with him, this time making sure to look a little less greedy to soak in the world around me. 

I sighed; Fate really was a bitch. To deprive me then pop me out into this picturesque French town. Filled with postcard corners. Filling me with memories of the coffee shop I loved. My favorite bookstore. My parent’s old house. The playground that still had my swing. “So why didn't we just pop into their house or something?” Best to keep talking lest my mind wander.

“They are very old witches. Been here since the 16th century. No body just _pops_ into their house!”

“So what's Mammon doing with 500 year old witches and please don't say anything dirty.”

We turned a corner and Lucifer threw a leer over his shoulder. “Why?”

I didn’t want to blame my virgin sensibilities. I also did not want to explain why it was easier to be around the silver haired demon that had thrown me around like a doll. Maybe because he had been brutally honest, but mostly forthright with whatever I asked him. Except one thing. Clearing my throat, I feigned disinterest as I shoved my hands into my jeans. “Why does he need rescuing? Isn't he like the second born, all powerful high demon of...you know…” I raised an eyebrow waiting.

I guess I still looked suspiciously expectant “What are you doing?” Lucifer frowned.

Throwing up my hands I grumped. “He won't tell me what sin he is!”

Lucifer raised an eyebrow as if I was an idiot. “You cannot tell?”

“Uh…envy? Pride? Greed? What's left?” I counted them off on my fingers, hoping his face might give something away, but he only shook his head sadly. “I met gluttony and sloth and Asmo said he’s lust. Wrath? He can't be wrath.”

“Oh you'll know wrath when you see it.”

“I'm leaning towards pride. He keeps calling himself the great Mammon. What are you?” I peered up at him as we meandered up a driveway.

“Pride,” he glowered. “And I can see why he didn't tell you.”

“Well that's one down. So what is he doing with the witches?”

“Being an idiot.”

“Not helpful.”

“Don't care. We are here.”

“Wha...” I looked up and startled. “This looks like the spread from a house and garden magazine. What crazy old coot will live in a joint like...” And exactly on cue a woman with hair the color of the finest ebony silk drove up in a tiny little coupe. I’m very straight but there was no denying that she was built to be looked at. Sleek, tall, narrow and full in all the right places. She daintily sashayed out of the car and went in with an armload of fresh bread. “How nice,” I muttered and perhaps a lot of that grumbling was also jealousy. I mean I’d died and come out on the other side in mundane. “Holding a high demon captive but taking time to get bread. Not to mention eternal life and beauty? And those preachy bastards kept saying heaven was where it’s at. Wait,” I caught Lucifer’s sleeve before we could turn to the house. I was just struck with a horrible thought. “Is Simon the bastard going to look this good all his life!?!”

“I liked you better when your monologues were in your head.” Extracting his person he let out a anguished sigh. “Please follow me and keep your mouth shut. We need to be discreet.” Muttering under his breath about chatty women, he calmly knocked his fist into the door.

The woman who had just driven in opened the door a crack and peered out.

Lucifer tilted his head, his hand on his chest as if he was the most chivalrous creature on god’s earth. “Bonsoir mademoiselle. Je crois que tu as quelque chose qui m'appartient.”(*1)

Her red rouged mouth parted in surprise. “Quoi?”(*2) I couldn’t blame her. Lucifer was indeed a sight to behold without warning. Especially when he’s dipped into his currently sexy pants vibe. It completely changed the demon and I had to force my jaw closed.

And he smiled at the woman. “Mon frère.”(*3) Then kicked the door.

Fucking hell, I muttered as the wood splintered and she screamed, her skin cut and peppered with shards, but Lucifer was already inside. He was deadlier when he was smiling.

“Discreet.” With a discomforted clearing of my throat, I carefully maneuvered my sneakered feet around the wreckage as he caught the woman by her throat.

“Silence, human!”

Lucifer moved like nothing I’d ever seen. His demon was all wings and horns. The witch exploded out of his hold in a snap and hiss of smoke. Hand around her throat, she skidded across the floor as she hurled magic. But Lucifer was relentless. There was a pandemonium in the foyer for exactly ten seconds before the woman slumped at his feet and Lucifer straightened.

“Wow. I am a little disturbed by how hot that was.” Belphie was right. I was broken.

Pulling on the cuffs of his shirt, Lucifer flicked his hair out of his eyes. “Don't let your guard down; there will be more.”

“How can you tell?”

“First rule of witch hunts.” He looked up just as two women stepped into his path. His grin was feral. “They always have sisters.”

There were two of them and I should have helped. But neither of them seemed particularly interested in me. Also, for the life of me I had no idea if I could even do something with the weapon Lucifer had bestowed upon me. Furies, theoretically made sense. Despite Lucifer’s lack of explanation, I remembered reading about them somewhere. Sisters. Angry. Lots of killing. I wasn’t sure how broken I had to be to be okay with that.

Not yet.

A flash of lightning streaked past me and I ducked behind a large vase. What was it about French and old antiques? I was still admiring the pretty blue whorls of color in the porcelain when it shattered and I saw one of the redheads lift a rather large chair and throw it at me as if it was a piece of lint. Instinct made me reach for Riven, but I was too slow. In a heartbeat, Lucifer was in my path, his claws shredding the thick upholstered chair into ribbons before he lunged.

Witches dispatched, claws tainted with blood, Lucifer snarled and turned to me. “You’re thinking too much!” His demon was still in his eyes even though the horns were receding. “Why did you hesitate?”

“I’m not sure what you expected me to do.”

“Defend yourself!”

“Isn’t that why you are here?”

“Are you trying to die?” He snapped, some of his composure slipping as he scooped up Riven from where it had fallen.

“No…,” I began, then froze. “Wait. I can die?”

“Of course, you stupid human girl! You may be dead but that doesn't make you indestructible!”

“Then why did you bring me!” I squawked as he went deeper into the house.

“I couldn't leave you there so Asmodeus could get his hands on you or Satan could get his claws in you.” He threw over his shoulder as if that was explanation enough. I hated how he told me nothing with his answers! It only made me miss Mammon more. Cryptic bastard at least told it like it was. Lucifer was trying doors until he found a stairwell leading down. “It's a wonder Beelz didn't take you.” He turned to me before he could step in and I nearly collided with him. “You're an unclaimed sacrifice. What's worse! You're manifesting into vengeance! You might as well put a target on your ass!”

Oh. Lucifer was angry and he was cursing and I hadn’t known him long, but I could tell I had upset him. “Ahem. You let Mammon watch me.”

“He and I are older than all the others. And his self-control is...” Letting out a slow breath he finished his thought. “Better.” He held the retracted spear to me. “Use it. Or one of these witches will claim you and trap you with them forever.”

I stared down at the weapon. The hum of its thirst coated my palm and crept over my skin like cold spindly fingers. “Why is it doing that?”

“Because it knows what you want, better than you do.” Those terrifying red eyes dulled, as if in memory and I almost didn’t catch his words as he descended to the basement. “And it knows your blood.”

“Wait, what…” But he was already going down and we had found Mammon

Anything I could have said, any question I would have had died on my lips. Horror filled my very being as I stared at the demon who had smirked and prodded and teased me. There was something gnawing at his ribs, something unreal, not even entirely corporeal. It seemed to pull something golden and flickering from his blood. Was that a coin? “What the hell is that…thing?”

“Khilan. Soul eaters,” Lucifer’s voice went to a deadly sort of calm. Mine? I could hear nothing beyond the screams. Trouble was, I had no idea who was screaming.

It began like a whistle going off in my head when I'd seen him, and now it had exploded into a roar. I didn’t know if Mammon was conscious. His head hung too low for me to see. Suspended with both wrists bound high on a metal hook, the fan of his shoulder blades was extreme. He was clad only in his black jeans that had several rips, the buttons open around his lower abdomen. 

But it was none of those things. It was the slashes of blood down his bare chest that sent fury shrieking in my head. He was cut open for fun.

I heard Lucifer’s voice, somewhere. Beyond the shriek of my own mind. It was like two magnets coming together that my eyes found the woman who stood beside him, her hand wrapped around a blade that looked more like a claw. Bloody, black and bare. I pointed Riven at it and her weapon began singing to mine. It told me every name, reflected every face, every drop of blood she’d ever carved with that blade.

It no longer mattered that she was 500 years old or that she was a powerful witch. It only mattered that she saw my true name and cowered.

There was a snap and crack as Riven extended in my hand and then I lunged. She was almost sixteen feet from me. I heard the guttural pop of magic. There was nothing in my memory to compare the sound to; I just knew something had been launched at me. But I was already running.

Thirteen feet.

Ducking low, I rolled over a table with grotesque, bloodied tools. Many of them still had his blood. But my head was filled with just how much I wanted to hurt her. Like Simon had hurt me, like Belphie was cut open, like Mammon looked revolving slowly on that hook.

Nine feet.

She was going to die. Hard.

Something singed my sleeve, but Riven’s blade took most of the blow. It could take them all.

Seven feet.

My feet slid a few inches back when something like a stone fist connected with the center of my spear. I lost the distance, but it only gave her a few seconds.

Five feet.

Black smoke exploded around me and I saw snarling fangs, both in my way and around me. The twin knives on both ends of my rod spun around in an arc and I felt ichor coat my legs. They were in my way. My vision had honed around a path that sent me straight at the witch now screaming in anger.

Three feet.

Something green smashed against Riven and sent noxious fumes up my nostrils, but I saw a Khilan dive for my head. Vision blurred, I snapped my eyes closed and twisted, sending my knee into its gut before swinging Riven in neat arc. There was a sickening squelch of flesh and screams of pain. But through the blurred vision of the toxin clearing from my eyes, I saw the woman lift her hand for another spell, now running in the opposite direction.

Six feet.

 _No_ , My mind screamed. She could not get away!

There was a screech behind me, maybe Lucifer’s work, but I was moving forward. Riven found a crack between the stone floor and vaulted me across the remaining distance. Using my momentum and weight, I saw the whites of her eyes widen as I used both my hands to bring down Riven’s curved blade like a sledgehammer – and I cut her in two.

There was one last guttural snarl and then all I could hear was my own ragged breath. Maybe it had been mine. Maybe I should have looked around. But whatever had taken me was still sifting through my veins and keeping my adrenaline high. As I rose to my full height, I saw the way Riven glistened in my hand preening and something sang in my soul. Wild. Free. Fulfilled.

“Storm!”

Turning my head, I saw Lucifer glaring at me. Why did he look angry? “Did you know how many people she killed?”

The high demon of pride scowled and dusted his shirt-front before stomping over to his silent brother and unhooking him. “Do you think it matters to me?”

“Matters to me.” I picked up a discarded rag, carefully wiped Riven clean and recalled it back into its sheath. Lucifer wasn't struggling with Mammon's weight but I moved forward, caught one of Mammon’s arms and wrapped it around my neck. 

The demon growled low under his breath. If he wanted to push me away, he didn't. Sweeping his hand across the table Lucifer cleared it. “Put him down,” he commanded.

There were still bright shimmering rhapsodies in my head but I carefully lowered the injured demon to the table and put my ear to his chest. “Does he usually have no heartbeat?”

Shoving me away, I saw the first slash of panic in Lucifer’s face as he put his own head to his brother’s chest. Then he seemed to sigh, obvious relief suffusing through him. “It is faint.”

“I heard nothing.”

“You’re a fledgling! Know your place!” He snapped.

Holding up my hands, I stepped away and let him take a quick tally of the prone high demon. I chalked up his irritation with concern for his brother. It made no sense for a sister-killer to be acting so frayed. And Lucifer was clearly frayed. I had to find a way to speak with Belphie again. Looking at the scarlet tinged silver of Mammon's hair, I resisted the urge to reach out to him again. Just to make sure he was breathing. “Is he dying?” I asked softly. Maybe for Lucifer's benefit. Maybe my own. I couldn't tell with my madness.

“No.” Lucifer hissed but the hand he ran through his hair was harried. “But he will if we move him. I need Levi.”

I frowned. “Demon doctor?”

“Brother.” Fishing something out of his pocket, he flicked his thumb and I realized it was a phone. He touched it to his ear then cursed profusely in a language I did not understand. “Damn your headphones Levi!” He watched me with worry chasing indecision. “Stay with him.”

Raising an eyebrow, I snorted. “What happened to don’t leave my side?”

“Obviously, I can’t leave him here alone!” He seemed to dial another number and barked into the phone. “Barbatos! I need a door! Now!”

“Hell has cell service?” I mused when he disconnected.

“Barbatos connects everything,” Lucifer grumbled, a bead of sweat on his perfect forehead. Those blood red eyes watched me with trepidation.

Rolling my eyes I straightened from where I leaned against the table. “Relax Lucifer. I won’t let anything near him.”

“You’re near him.”

Startled by the slash of his words, instinctively I took a step away from Mammon. “I…I won’t hurt him.”

“Do you know how many people he’s killed?”

Dread swept through me. There was a muted thud in my chest and I swallowed hard, eyes slipping towards the unconscious high demon, but except for concern, I felt nothing else. “I…no. I don’t.” And just that thought was enough to shake lose the first threads of sanity. I did not?

“Good. Most furies don’t give a fuck what demons do, but someone getting to you, could hurt him.” Something twisted in my gut. That wasn’t a pleasant thought. Lucifer reached forward and smacked his phone into my hand. “Speed dial 1. Straight line to Diavolo if someone comes. Do you hear me?” Something flickered in the background, but those blood red eyes held mine like a vice.

I nodded dumbly. Then in a swish of his furred cloak, he was gone.

Letting out a slow rasping breath, I looked down at Mammon before surveying the room – and choked.

Like lightning streaking across my nerves, it cleared the roar of my blood and only left a soft low aching hollow in my chest.

There was blood everywhere. I was covered in it. But this time it was not my own.

Staggering back against the table, my hip jostled into Mammon’s shoulder as his hand snapped closed around my wrist. And yeah. I screamed.

TO BE CONTINUED....

> _*French translation_
> 
> _(1) Bonsoir mademoiselle. Je crois que tu as quelque chose qui m'appartient - Good Evening young lady, I believe you have something that belongs to me_
> 
> _(2) Quoi? - What?_
> 
> _(3) Mon frère - My brother._


	9. Sucker for Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The seven deadly sins with so much family drama and here was Mammon possibly saving a human child?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left comments. You guys are the best. For the Kudos and for my readers, I'd be lost without you. Sorry it took me so long to post this one.

The prone demon hissed, his fangs grit as his fist tightened on my wrist, the bones just shy of shattering. “Why does yer kind scream so much?” He rasped, a gurgle of the blood in his throat reminding me just how much damage he’d endured. These demons were definitely built to last. By all accounts he should have been dead or at least comatose. That is not even covering the trauma of his torture.

“I’m not that kind anymore,” I reminded him and lifted my hand where his white painted nails were nearly digging into my flesh. “Or you’d have broken my wrist by now.”

He winced and the pressure lessened until finally his grip relaxed. And maybe I mistook it. Maybe my hazed, panicked mind was making shit up, but I thought I felt his thumb smooth over the inside of my wrist as if to soothe the crescents he’d left there. It was just too inconceivable so I didn’t linger on it. Not then. Besides I had more pressing matters as he groaned and levered up on one elbow. “He gone?”

I stared as he squinted at me through red streaked eyes. Like someone had put their thumbs there. And the sight of those beautiful bruised eyes turned my blood to hot furious lava again. Gritting my teeth, I tried to swallow down the sudden awareness of Riven starting to seethe. Even if it wasn’t in my hand, I could feel its call. It’s pull. “Lucifer? Yes. Will you let go of my hand now?”

“No,” he glared, and tugged on the appendage he still held hostage. “Help me up.”

My righteous anger went up in a poof of incredulity as I watched him struggling to sit. “Are you crazy! Lucifer will kill me if you croak on me.” I shook off his hold and put my hands on his shoulders with the full intention of forcing him down. But I will not lie. Mammon is deceptive the way he is build. Where strength oozes from Beelz and radiates from Lucifer, Mammon seems lanky. So when my hands smoothed over fine corded muscle, I paused. There was something strangely formidable about him. And he was half dead. Who knew?

“Hey! Up! Help me up!” He grumbled, his voice cracking and for the next few seconds we did a funny push and pull until I realized that it was probably going to hurt him more to try and hold him down. Relenting, I huffed and carefully helped him sit. “Damn human,” demon squinted around him and something like embarrassment fissured through me.

Did he realize how I felt him up. Oh hell. But my mortification was short lived as I realized he was taking a tally of the scene before him. Bodies. Blood. Mayhem. Oh shit.

“Who happened here?”

Like a switch flicked, my stomach overturned as embarrassment melted into panic. Eyes wide and brimming with fear, I felt the burn of horrified tears building. “Me,” I whispered brokenly. It felt like weeks, maybe years ago that he’d thrown me into the bathtub, tossed me around and left me with Beelz. The phantom of time slipping away set my teeth to grinding. Everything was slipping now.

Mammon sat there, still and watching as if he could look right into my soul. As if he could look past all the time. “Breathe.” I started when those split, bleeding hands caught my shoulders and those blue-gold eyes honed in on mine. “Ya gotta still breathe, remember?”

I wrung my hands together, my breath hard, gasping and coming faster with each new one. “I did this. I... I killed all these...”

“Look at me,” he growled and the breath stilled in my chest as his hands slid up to hold my jaw, forcefully dragging my eyes to him. Still looking worse for wear, a touch of concern mixed with the command, Mammon pulled me a few inches closer and I stumbled. Falling off the edge of my panic, I stood floundering in the unfamiliar strength of him. Hand coming to brace against the torn knee of his jeans, I felt the heat of his broken flesh, a slick of blood coating my palm but I caught my balance. At least I think I did.

It was not more than a few breaths, but for a moment something dark and roiling slid through my veins. Thick, sticky and sweet in a way that completely robbed me of why I had been unable to breathe. Because who needed breathing? Mammon smirked and I wasn’t stupid or insensible enough to know that was his intention all along. “Good,” he snickered. “Eyes on the great Mammon babe.”

The splash of his usual humor combined with that haughty purr of his voice, I blinked and the spell was broken. “Really?” I deadpanned.

“It worked, didn't it.” Pulling his hands away, he drew away and rotated his shoulder with a groan.

There was still some edges of distress that lingered in my gut, but mostly I was calm. The strangeness of the last minute made me a little confused. A little uncomfortable. A little hot. Swallowing, I removed my hand from his knee and stepped away.

Mammon shifted and touched a bruise on his jaw. “Fuck. I told her to leave the face. Vindictive bitch.”

Jaw slowly dropping, I stared at him disbelievingly. How was this one not vanity? “Are you kidding me right now Mammon? That... Witch was bleeding you dry. What did you do to piss her off anyway?” At least we were no longer focused on me. Good.

“Nothin,” he muttered evasively and tried to swing his legs down, only to do an awkward little seesaw before I caught his arm. “Gitaway! Who said you could touch me human!”

I rolled my eyes deciding not to remind him that he was touching me just fine a few moments ago, but that would only bring the attention back to me. Somehow, I couldn’t handle that right now. Holding him steady, I sighed. “You're clearly not fine.”

“I am…” Trailing off, he suddenly went deathly still, a touch paler than when we’d first found him. “The boy!” He whipped around and hissed out in pain. “DAMMIT!”

“Mammon, you lunatic! You're opening wounds!” Not that I was strong enough to hold him in place, but I tried my best not to let him thrash around. Those cuts were weeping again, trails of fresh dark red now staining his chest.

Grabbing my hand that was trying to push him back down to lay down, he looked dead into my eyes. “There was a boy.” As if the memories were slowly resurfacing, he looked towards the back of the room.

It was small and none of us had paid any attention to it because nothing had moved inside. Leaving the demon shuddering on the table, I slowly made my way to the black wrought iron cage and gasped. “Oh g…shit Mammon, is he Human?”

Nearly quaking with the need to rise, Mammon took gasping breaths, the pain obviously throwing his previous rhythm off. Now he resembled more like the waking dead we had found. “Is he dead?”

I shook my head. “I think he’s breathing, but he doesn’t look awake.”

“I need... Call. Fareed.” I could barely make out his words but I was back beside him, holding his shoulder, redirecting his weight away from his injuries. “We don't got time, before lucifer comes.” He tried to reach under him and in that effort fell back into the table with a teeth jarring thud. “Fuck!”

“Okay, stop,” I held down his hand before it reached into something vital and bleeding. “Mammon. Calm down and tell me what you need?”

“Phone.”

I realized he’d been wiggling around to get his phone out of his back pocket. Taking a deep breath, I slid my hand under him and just like that the blood and urgency was replaced with heat and butterflies. “Why are your jeans so tight” I muttered and cursed the sudden flush that suffused over every inch of flesh that was exposed. Wrenching it out, disregarding how my hand had been all over his ass, I flicked my finger over the phone to indeed find it working. _Demon tech_ , I grumbled. Mangled as it was, mine would have been in ruins. “Okay. You know phones should be password protecteOHMIG... Mammon! Who puts their own nude as their phone WALLPAPER!!!”

“I do.”

“Fareed…Fareed…” I scrolled madly through his contacts, my cheeks nearly on fire. “There he is. Thank God!” There was a low guttural snarl and I glared at him, the flare of my blush giving way to irritation. I could never un-see the wallpaper now! “Oh shut up! I'm in my world.” Hitting call, I met his eyes with a clearing of my throat. “Ahem. So what do I say?”

“243, St. Louise. Come get the boy.”

_Cryptic much?_

When the man on the other end picked up, he didn’t say hello, or speak at all. I simply relayed Mammon’s message and the line went dead.

Riven cut through the little cage’s lock like butter and almost gingerly, like I was touching something too fragile to handle, I drew the tiny body out and into my arms. The reality of what horrors this tiny one could have seen took the breath from my lungs. I carefully carried him to the table Mammon lay on.

“Bring him closer.”

My head snapped up, surprised by the gentle coax of his voice. Very slowly, with a shaking hand Mammon slid his thumb against the boy’s forehead. Exactly as Barbatos had when I’d first arrived. Seemed eons ago.

At first I saw nothing, but then I saw the tendrils of gold that latticed around the boy’s forehead branching out like roots until it disappeared into his temples. I looked up inquisitively and Mammon let out a deep, unhappy sigh. “I’m takin’ his memories. Best he does not remember me on that hook, or this place.”

“How did he get here?”

“Not important.”

“Mammon, come on.”

“I don’t gota tell you shit, Furie.”

Startled, I held the child closer. Yes. Perhaps I wanted to know who had wronged him? Why anyone would want to. How he ended up here. Why Mammon was trying to save him? _Was_ he saving him?

My eyes slid back to the bits and pieces of demon and human alike that I’d scattered around the room and I realized perhaps Mammon was right. I did not want to know who to kill next. The need would drive me off the precipice I was standing on. Gazing down at the boy, I sighed. He was cherub. Barely four years old. A thousand questions went through my mind, but Mammon was already levering off the table to sit again. I saw him palm something that glistened in the dim light of the basement before I saw him slip it into the boy’s pocket.

Something clicked in my brain, but I was too busy staring at the demon in front of me.

It was probably a few minutes but Mammon noticed my silent scrutiny of him as he sat there breathing slowly to keep from stretching anything vital. He was doing his utmost not to open any more wounds. And he did have many. Those Persian silk eyes slid to me finally with a scowl. “What?”

“You're an odd demon,” I mused, my curiosity getting the better of me. “Did the boy have a teddy bigger than yours?”

One corner of his mouth twisted up and he chuckled deep in his chest. “Envy? Pshhh. No ways.”

For the death of me I couldn’t figure out how he fit into their equation. The seven deadly sins with so much family drama and here was Mammon possibly saving a human child? Of course he could be just selling him to a flesh-eating baby killer, but not a fiber of my being would believe it.

Fareed came faster than I expected. Nearly nine minutes into our silent wait, I heard the front door open up in the house and boots echoed through the floorboards. To say it was a shock to see a blue skinned, tattooed, pierced and strikingly beautiful, blue demon walk down those stairs would be an understatement. And did I tell you he was blue? Like sultry old nights that were just shy of midnight. And those tattoos were a bright splash of stars all over his skin.

He came into the basement with an air of calm and a whiff of what could be amber and cardamom. Pitch black, pupil-less eyes glistened in the meager light. I had no idea how he’d walked those streets to us without being seen. “Mammoney,” he grinned, teeth like the most beautiful razor blades as he stepped around a few fleshy bits. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks Fareed, yer a master of observation as always,” grunting and rolling his eyes Mammon jerked his chin towards the tiny curled boy in my arms. “He’s there.”

“Wow, they really put you through a blender, eh? Why didn’t you call me sooner?” Fareed sighed and stepped closer. It was instinct to step away and hug the child tighter. I mean there must have been some part of me that was still human enough to think the child was safer with me. The demon quirked an eyebrow. “Hello fledgling.”

“She’s a Furie,” Mammon provided helpfully.

And then I remembered how I redecorated the basement. _Thank you Mammon, you straightforward jerk._

There was a spark of silver in those black, black eyes as the new demon slid his eyes over me. And I will not lie. It felt like the stickiest, grossest oil skating over my skin. When Riven began to sing, my grip tightened on the child.

“Hey.” The hand touched my elbow and I looked up at Mammon, once again caught by his ability to recall me from the abyss. “He’s one of mine. Fareed will take the boy somewhere safe. Ya can let him go.”

But the headcount was going up over Fareed’s head. And Lucifer said most Furies didn’t care about demons, but I could.

If I chose it.

I could.

The only consolation was that none of them were kids. Reluctantly, almost as painful as ripping my own skin off, I let Fareed gently pull the boy into his arms. But then my breath hitched as the heady demon suddenly stepped right into my personal space. The child pressed right into my chest, the demon crowded me, his nose nearly level with mine as he inhaled. “Mmmm, virgin sacrifice.”

Shit.

Blood freezing in my veins, I stood rooted to my spot as the demon’s fanged mouth opened, hungry and possibly salivating. The very real likelihood of being eaten finally caught up to me and like Lucifer said, self-preservation isn’t what prompted my mayhem to kick in. Mouth going dry, I had barely rasped a frightened breath before it turned into a gasp of shock. Unceremoniously I was snatched back against Mammon’s chest, those bleeding, bruised, but surprisingly firm arms snaking around me. One around the span of my shoulders, the other low around my torso. And I was surrounded.

_Holy hell crap._

“Hands off, djin,” Mammon growled, the tenor the same as when he’d chased those human from Beelz’s feast. Final and unyielding. Superior.

Fareed watched us for a moment, me with my mouth open, hands in midair, eyes nearly exploding from my head and Mammon with his mouth snarling right at my ear and completely wrapped around me. It felt like forever, but Fareed relaxed and looked down at the child in his arms before meeting Mammon’s eyes with a grin. “Fine. But only because you're so cute when you're territorial.”

The djin winked and just like that I was once against left alone with the half-naked, half-dead high demon of hell.

“Tsk,” Mammon huffed and slowly and gingerly withdrew his arms away, some of his blood now staining my nice new shirt. Didn’t matter. I had ichor and witch bit on it as well, but his blood would stain. “I knew ya'd be trouble human.” I would have shivered or sputtered or possibly made a fool of myself, but I felt the demon sway and moan behind me. Barely in time to turn and catch his weight, I saw him finally pass out again.

I stood there for a moment, fortifying myself before carefully lowering him back down to the dirty table. “Hell, demon boy.”

He was an oddity; an anomaly in this entire circus. He stood out. And for no apparent reason he became a grounding influence. First, he’d given me my first sense of reality. I was no longer human. My limitations, my endurance, my proclivities had changed. Death had changed me. Secondly, he’d neither coddled me, nor thrown me to the unknown. And now, he had possibly saved me. “You're just full of surprises aren't you?” I murmured and I blame the invisible strings. I was sure they were there, because I couldn’t keep from sifting my fingers through that silvery hair that had caught my attention the first time I’d seen him sitting on the edge of the bathtub. It was exactly as I had imagined. Soft, weightless and inviting. Most of all inviting. “I'm a sucker for bad boys gone good.”

Or maybe I was a sucker for pain.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	10. Lachrymose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To think I was barely human, fraternizing with demons and now possibly invested in their well-being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens. Sorry this is a short chapter, but this had to lead up to a bigger scene so I separated them. Enjoy!

There was something jittery and nervous about the good doctor. Truth be told, he was more like the proverbial Mad Scientist. All indigo haired, long coat and a splashes of orange and blue. He was tall and hunched from the shoulders as if it bothered him. And those eyes, all salamander hues of orange with a dash of blue, skittered to me then slid away as if it hurt to look at me.

By the time Leviathan returned with Lucifer, Mammon hadn’t moved. And even though my grasp of time was precarious at best these days, I knew the exchange with the djin hadn’t been more than 15 minutes. Perhaps Lucifer had cut into his younger brother, because the high demon was like a vibrating deer, ready to bolt. Extending his hand across Mammon’s body Leviathan seemed to release a strange blue liquid that was too thick to be water. It crawled over Mammon’s prone body like intimate fingers encasing him into a blueish hue and Leviathan began to rattle of medical facts that were familiar as well as completely alien in their explanation.

“His tether is weak. Internal damage is extensive. Lacerations, hemorrhaging. Corporal Integrity seventy-three percent compromised. Spiritual Integrity at eight-six percent.”

“How’s his healing Levi?”

“Slow, but I can bring up that quotient enough so his natural defenses should kick in,” Leviathan answered Lucifer’s questions curtly and precisely then he looked up a flicker of real concern in those snake eyes. “It makes no sense!” The concern seemed to edge into frustration, maybe even fury. “Why didn’t he defend himself! He could have cut those bitches to ribbons! Why doesn’t he EVER fight back?”

Something coiled and tightened in my gut and I had to hold my breath to keep from giving it away. I knew why Mammon hadn’t struck those witches for cutting him open. Lucifer looked at me for a long time, as if he could see right through me. Eventually he looked away and sighed. “I tend to avoid the rabbit hole of Mammon’s inane thought process.”

Levi huffed. “Inconceivable.” Those orange eyes flicked to me and this time held. They cut into me with a scalpel and seemed to bare my flesh, my insides, my soul in way that made me wrap my arms around myself. “What about her? She doesn’t seem like a big deal.”

“That you are even asking, makes me see that to you, she is.” There was an edge to Lucifer’s voice. But it did not stop the cutting examination of Levi’s eyes. “Leviathan,” Lucifer’s calm melted into a low warning growl.

Dragging his eyes away, the high demon snorted. “You never let me have any fun. It’s not fair! Besides, I’m just wondering what the fuss is all about.”

Even I could tell there was a fuss. It was in the strange tick in his temple and the itching curls of his fingers. Like he wanted to put them inside me. Like he wanted to find my secrets.

“Green is not your color Levi. Please, just fix Mammon so we can go home.”

“OMG Lucy; you're wound tighter than Satan on noodle days!” The mad scientist laugh was now patented. I would never be able to associate it with anyone else.

“Mammon's cooking would make anyone tense,” Lucifer smiled sardonically but I could see the tension had broken in the two brothers.

Mammon continued to sleep in the flicker of Levi’s healing liquid. At least that’s what I hoped it was. But the very mundane back and forth between the two brothers seemed to set my teeth on edge. I felt like the outsider. The anomaly, the intruder. And the only demon for whom I felt even a smidge of comradery with, was unconscious. I suddenly had a very vested interest in Mammon’s waking. That thought brought with it another army of doubt, and confusion. To think I was barely human, fraternizing with demons and now possibly invested in their well-being. It was enough to make me lament out loud. “Is this my life now?”

It was a rhetorical question, but Lucifer with his usual cutting vanity took it upon myself to shatter any illusions I might have had. “Yes.”

Even Levi flinched. “Way to soften the blow.”

“We don't have time for softening!” Lucifer snarled and looked around the filthy room that now stank of death and bile. “Circumstances being what they are.”

“Ahem. Right so…uh, I should examine her too? Just to be sure.”

The hair rising on every part of my body, I took a low, hissing breath. “No thank you.”

The indigo haired demon went wide-eyed and seemed to curl into himself, even if he outwardly let out another cracked cackle akin to the finest madness. “Come on human! Like I want to touch you! LOL. I’m not the least bit interested! Interest is the farthest thing I could have! Hashtag, who cares!”

Lucifer let out a slow suffering sigh and ran a hand through his raven hair. “She is clearly fine Levi.”

“You imply I care! Which I do not! I merely think it would be wise to look into her, seeing as she is so uninterestingly reluctant. Could be a celestial trap!”

“No!” The oldest demon brother seemed to go red for a moment and Levi and I both shuddered a little. “Or do I have to leash you like Asmo?”

Drawing away from Lucifer a few steps, the high demon of what I knew clearly to be envy now, flinched. “Unlike him. I do not get off on bondage. You always give him what he wants.”

Touching his temple as if his headache was only getting larder, Lucifer looked down at their silent brother. “Just tell me how long?”

“Almost.” Holding up a hand, Levi seemed to draw the luminescent blue liquid back into his fingers, the act almost alien enough to make me swallow hard. He left Mammon bruised, but completely dry. And his skin had some of those warm cinnamon tones back. “We should be able to move him back now.”

“Good.” Lucifer stalked to the door they had emerged from. One of Barbatos’ I gathered. “Let's go home. I've had enough of this world.”

And just like that there was an ache in my chest. Like I wanted to run up those basement stairs and embrace the sun and sky one more time. But one look around the bloody room reminded me that my world had changed. It was best not to get used to the light and warmth again.

This time, I left the human world on my own accord.

*

He almost caught a glimpse of the door. Stepping into the basement the tall pallid figure lifted his handkerchief and put it over his nose. His team flared out around him, already bagging and tagging the bits and pieces left behind. He hated clean up duties. But as the high warlock it was his duty to oversee deaths of other high level coven members.

Solomon never liked the stink of death. Especially if it was an old, old witch. With magics dissipating around the body, the years would rush back and with it, bring centuries of rot.

“She's here sir.”

Of course she was here. He could smell her all the way where he stood. Whispering a spell to keep the smell at bay, Solomon stepped around the room, careful to keep his coattails clean as he stood over the body. When he saw the two pieces he cursed under his breath. It would have been cleaner to just chop her damned head off. How the hell did they manage to cut her down the middle? Lifting a hand he grumbled, almost dreading the sift through the memory of her death.

But he knew something was off. Melanis had been one of his oldest friends. She'd been trying to forge a deep magic for years now with a high demon she had bound. The notion that it had managed to break the shackles of his pact with her to leave her eviscerated seemed personal. And worrisome.

Speaking the spell slowly, he began to form the phantoms of the room's memories around him and with painstaking precision he reconstructed the events that transpired.

The knowledge left the wizard even more disquieted.

In fact, the tall, ponytailed vision that stood before him nearly sucked the breath from his lungs.

He pulled out his phone and made the call.

His recipient picked up on the seventh ring. "What do you want Solomon? I'm busy."

Solomon had a pretty good idea what he had interrupted if the whine of feminine protest in the background was anything to go by. Still, he pushed ahead. "I thought you'd be interested in this."

"I'm in the middle of..."

"Simeon, there's a furie. In France."

The venerated angel sighed. “So?” Solomon could see him roll his eyes in his mind's eye. Already meaning to dismiss him and return to his activity. “Wait.” There was a shuffle and Solomon knew he now had the angel's full attention. “Alley and Meg are both home.”

"Would I call if it was one of them?"

There was a hiss of fury from the angel. "How dare you! Tis is dead and you know it! To bring her up in your mad fantasies..."

"It is not Tisiphone!"

"Make sense warlock!"

Touching his throbbing temple Solomon let some of his own anger through. "Look, it's a furie that's all I know. I don't know her face. She killed Melanis! But that’s not why I called. She’s holding a very specific weapon."

"Which?" There was a swish and Solomon knew the angel was now robbed. Good. Because his next words would change everything.

"It's the Riven."

For a moment there was silence at the other end of his call. He could feel Simeon's confusion. His growing discomfort. "Where are you?"

There was a clink of metal and Solomon knew now the angel was armored. He sighed almost sad for how his day was going to get worse. "Bergheim."

"I'm coming."

Hanging up, Solomon look at the destruction around the room. He should have known this would be the work of a furie. And if this new one was anything like their last dead sister, Simeon would have a cow.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	11. Lord of Fools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hadn’t saved my chastity so I could sell it to the devil so I figured like a bandaid was best. Fast and hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter became a mammoth! There was no way for me to split this. Please bear with me and enjoy!

Every sin is different. Some decadent. Some sinuous and some enticing. My demon was different. Oh god. I swallowed down the sudden horror of my mind. I was getting attached. The words ‘my demon’ kept spiraling in my head until there was no place to hide from it. And my inability to lie to myself only made the fire of my fury darker, hotter. Distracting.

Unfortunately, the more I burned, the more I saw Simon with his knife slipping behind me. The memory of how his breath had been moist and breathlessly anticipatory against my ear like a brand. How Belphie had looked, dirty and bitter from behind those walls. The manacles. The shackles. The lonely darkness of his confinement. And all wanted to do was let it take me.

Maybe being back in my world had thrown something off kilter. Maybe the sudden need to wake Mammon from his healing slumber was driving me mad.

Almost as mad as the high demon of envy as he kicked doors open muttering and grumbling about being misunderstood and how hellpeppers upset his stomach and ruined his experiment.

We had walked through Barbatos’ door, Mammon in Levi’s arms as if he weighed nothing. Under Lucifer’s watch, I had followed as they carried my…the still unconscious demon down a spiraling staircase. It was then that I saw them. The skittering of the shadows came alive and then the first blob of darkness separated into a spindly limbed creature.

I froze. “Uh...Lucifer, the shadows are coming with us.”

“They’re worried about him,” Lucifer offered but of course the explanation made no sense. Still, I had to physically clamp down on the need to cut them with Riven. Keep them away.

They were oddly shaped. Sinewy yet phantom-like in their smoke and flicker. Any limbs, were tendrils of eyes and an oddly shaped mouth full of shark teeth that seemed to travel around their form as if it couldn’t decide where to be. If I hadn’t already been in hell, I would have been freaking out. As for their connection to Mammon, I had a feeling asking Lucifer would only warrant more questions. But I kept my distance as they followed our vigil into Leviathan’s domain.

I did not want to be in there, but my apprehension outweighed my need to stay close to Mammon. Shut up, don’t judge me. I’ve been through hell. Literally.

Those long flickering, black shadows were now gathering around Mammon as he was lowered onto a medical gurney. Or a lab table that looked ominous. At least it was clean.

I really, really did not want to be in there, but curiosity really was a bitch.

Gritting my teeth, I stepped into the basement and lost my breath. It wasn’t a basement. Perhaps a clinic. No, not a clinic. Bodies and vats and computer screens cast iridescent lights around the chamber. Even though the space was vast and nearly endless, it was stifling. Like being underwater. It was definitely a lab.

Levi set about kicking away those shadows whispering around Mammon and going about his business, retreating vials and jars as he tended to the larger wounds on his brother’s body. As I walked through the lab, I almost felt bad for them. The shadow minions hissed and slithered away, but mostly milled around the gurney. Like they couldn’t tear themselves away. Damn, but I was sympathizing with them. How far gone was I?

“I'll keep him in my lab for now,” Levi assured Lucifer who still stood by the door, arms crossed and those devil red eyes troubled.

I was, however, too occupied to notice as I stood before a four foot jar on a table. Inside, a bobbly head with green haloed hair floated in liquid. It was glowing and grinning, nearly toothless and starting at me.

“That’s Oscar.” Levi provided helpfully over my should and I startled. “I’m trying to find his body, he can’t seem to remember where he put it. Say hi Oscar.”

The face smiled. Or tried to. His tongue kept rolling out.

“Oookay,” I knew there wasn’t enough soap in the world to scrub that image from my mind. “This is getting weird now.”

“I suggest you keep your distance from Levi and his things,” Lucifer warned and with a roll of his eyes, the Avatar of Envy flopped into what looked like an ornate clawfoot bathtub. With cushions. Obviously sulking. And that was when I started seeing the theme. Water glistened across the entire floor of the lab floor. I gingerly stepped away from a thick electric cable that slithered through it, just waiting to electrocute someone. Everything was wet.

The entire chamber was like an underground water system. Pipes connected everything. The sound of liquid flowing around me was oddly soothing. As were the luminous jellyfish lights suspended from a ceiling I could not see. The claustrophobia began to ebb.

“You think I want that thing anywhere close to me? Pfffft! Please do not make me laugh Lucy.” Levi snorted.

“Hey!” I glared at him. “This thing has a name.”

“Miss Walker?”

Turning to Lucifer’s exasperated tone, something I would come to recognize was his patent with me, I turned the full beam of my glare to him. “What?”

“I need to speak with Diavolo.”

“Good. There are a few things I must ask him too,” I muttered as I meant to follow him, but Lucifer held up his hand.

“No.” Those eyes darkened and froze me to my spot. I hated how this guy could put fear into my bones. And the righteous fury he’d helped me identify in my blood began to sing again. I had to grit my teeth to hold my ground. “It's you I need to speak to him about. I suggest you stay with Mammon and Levi. It's the safest option.”

“You’re leaving me here? What happened to no one can be trusted around me?”

“It will have to do.” Lifting his gaze to his brooding brother, who had now picked up what appeared to be a hand-held video game Lucifer growled. “Levi?”

“Yes, your liege?” The red jewel in Lucifer’s forehead flickered and Levi held up his hand, one of them still holding the device. “Fine. I won't touch her. And did I say I don’t want to? You never trust me!”

“Sure I do.” The Avatar of Pride nodded a touch of wicked humor in the twist of his mouth. “Now that Mammon is awake.”

“What!?” Levi scrambled up as I spun around, something catapulting in my gut.

And sure enough, Mammon was sitting shirtless, a little less bruised and smirking on the gurney. When he saw the disappointment on Levi’s face he winked and wiggled his fingers.

“Hmph.” The Leviathan went down in his bathtub again with a grouse, thumbs mashing away on his video game. For the umpteenth time I wondered how things worked here. There was no order to their theme. Demon yet not. Human yet not.

And my demon was the most bewildering enigma of all. Wicked, cruel and dark in his humor but so very compassionate. I stood there for a moment, unsure if I should approach him. He was still surrounded by his minions. But there was no denying it now. I was suddenly a lot more content with being left behind. And that was when I saw his towel magic. He held out a hand and those shadows scrambled around putting his usual ensemble in his hands. Like clockwork dress fitters they handed him a fresh black t-shirt, his usual crisp brown leather jacket. Pants that he…holy shit! I jerked my eyes away as he unceremoniously began to replace them with fresh ones.

Levi snickered cruelly, those eyes never missing my reactions. “Virgins are so funny.”

“Mammon.” Lucifer’s voice held none of the exasperation or warning from before. Now it was deadly. “You and I will have words later.”

The rescued demon paused, one arm still suspended ridiculously as he tried to pull on his jacket. “Uh. Yeah.”

The eldest brother looked at all three of us, me blushing, Levi failing to show disinterest and Mammon standing cowed and pale. With a shake of his head and a flare of his cape Lucifer was marching out muttering about headaches.

The only sound after his departure was the water rushing in Levi’s lab. And the occasional bubble and pop of his mad scientist theme.

The three of us stood there in the awkward tableau of silence until Mammon winced and stretched his healing muscles. “Ya wana tell us what happened human?”

I don’t know why the question threw me. I was standing a few feet away, but still it feel like he was too far away. I wasn’t sure if it was an invitation to share with the class or just some way to open the conversation. He had been there. He had seen the room. He knew exactly what I had done. Crossing my arms, I walked over until I stood right before him. “You wanna tell us why _you_ were strung like meat on a hook?”

“Not particularly, no.”

I let him see the saccharine sarcasm in my smile. “Same.”

There was a low clicking growl in Mammon’s chest as those blue eyes narrowed on me. “Yer one of us now furie. I'd be more respectful.”

“OMG!” Levi sat up in the bathtub, those salamander eyes drinking me in. “That was all her? Hashtag: No way!”

“Way.” Feeling the vestigial mortification flare along with the itch under my skin, I cleared my throat, eyes falling away. “I didn't plan to kill anything. It just... happened.” I slid my hand to where Riven was shoved into the waist band of my jeans. Pulling it out I stared at it as the weapon reacted to my emotions and began to hum gently. “It was as if Riven knew what to do.”

“Whoa.” Levi came to peer at me again. His voice came close enough to be disconcerting so I took a step closer to Mammon. “Isn’t that Lilith’s?”

My ears perked as Mammon glowered at his brother.

Knowing that there was an explanation due, I turned the full force of my eyes on the one demon who would be straight with me. “Who is that word? It keeps coming up.”

Mammon looked uncomfortable, but he deny it. “Lucifer didn't tell you?”

“You get yourself...”

“Strung like meat. I know.” Mammon grumbled. “Can we get past that?”

“No, and I did save your life.”

And just like that the my high demon was in my personal space. Hopping off the gurney he bore down on me, a touch of his gold irritation back. “I owe ya nothin’ human.”

“You kinda do high demon. He's envy.” I pointed to Levi who hovered around us, his curiosity so clearly piqued. “Lucifer said wrath would be hard to miss.”

“Yehaa!” The Avatar of envy snorted. “Satan is hard to ignore; much like the Lord of Masks. Unlike me.”

Those blue gold eyes were cautious, because I hadn’t looked away. Good. _Eyes on me oh great Mammon._ A muscle tightened in his jaw.

I couldn’t help the haughty grin. “Greed. I saw the coins that kisbut demon was pulling out of you.”

“Khilan,” Mammon spat out.

“Whatever.” I hoped my smirk was as haughty as his as I reveled in the chance to rile him up for a change. I could totally see his delight in doing the same to me. Mammon was getting increasingly unhappy with my gall so I pressed. “You owe me.”

“Who doesn't Mammon owe.”

“Levi will you shut it!” Breath harsh, Mammon snarled at his brother, the effect not as precise as Lucifer but Levi snapped his mouth closed. Glaring at me, I could tell Mammon was having a hard time keeping his composure. “What the hell do ya want? A pact? A leash? Not happenin’. I just got outa one. I ain't in the mood.”

He made to leave and I caught his sleeve. “A favor then.”

“It ain't cheap to get favors from the great Mammon.”

Holding him in place, I pulled the object from my pocket. After Lucifer and Levi had returned and they tended to Mammon, I finally realized what Mammon had put in the boy’s pocket. It was the reason my present plan was in motion. The reason I knew Mammon was the high demon of greed. The reason I had picked up the bloodied coin from the guts of the soul eating demon.

“Unholy Hells bells Idiotmammon!” Levi’s cackle was a near shriek as he doubled over in laughter. “She got one of your Grimm! Bwahahaha! LMAO!”

“Lucifer said those kissy demons steal souls. Would this be some of yours?” I fluttered my eyes innocently.

The Avatar of Greed yanked his arm out of my hold, vibrating and expanding in his size for a second, before he got his control back with a snort. “Don't be an idiot, it means nothing. And its Khilan demon.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You gave one to...”

My breath whooshed out of my mouth as he stepped into my personal space, his blue eyes leaking gold. Nose nearly pressed to mind. “Do ya know what yer messin’ with human?”

He was no Lucifer, but I will not lie. Mammon had more than enough intimidation going for him with just how close he could get to me. How his breath wafted across my mouth and I couldn’t hide the dry, noisy swallow. Licking my lips, I summoned every ounce of my bravado as I held his gaze. “Apparently I'm a furie now. How much is your secret worth?” I whispered and it was a miracle my voice did not crack.

It was a mere second before Mammon grit his teeth and stepped away, one of his hand upturned and open as he leveled the full force of that deadpan glower at me. “Fine. Hand it over.”

My brow hiked as I realized he had agreed. Blood rushing back to my head, I swayed for a second, a little dumbfounded that my blackmail had worked. A part of me was saddened. He would rather be bound to me, than let his brothers know? Was it that big a secret? That awful a truth for him? “Really?” I couldn’t help confirm.

“Yeah, fuck it.” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter even though ever instinct told me it did. It mattered so much for him to agree. “I'll outlive you. Let's go.”

“You don't want to know what I want first?”

“Like I care. Chop chop.”

Levi sighed. “That's not very smart Mammon.” And I agreed. I had a feeling Mammon didn’t think much of his own self-preservation. The incident with the witches became even more troubling…and bit heartbreaking. I almost felt awful for doing this to him.

And then Simon and Belphie began singing in my head as Riven heated.

I tightened my fist around the Grimm.

“Stay out of it,” Mammon growled at Levi, but those eyes. Damn. Those blue gold eyes had gone a deep dark sapphire. “She wants to make a deal with the devil.” This time Mammon’s grin had fangs. “Let's play big girl games then.”

Every rational part of my mind was telling me this was a stupid idea. That blackmailing a high demon should not be easy. But another almost innate part of me knew that asking him was my only option. Especially if I wanted to find Simon and figure out how to help Belphie.

Gulping down the need to back out, my hesitation clearly showing, I reached out to drop the coin in his palm. But the bastard that he can be, as Mammon caught my entire hand with the speed of a snake strike. The squeak of fear that was dragged from me was very real as I lurched forward with the force of his grip. He was back in charge. Staring up at him leering down at me, every part of me was now screaming that this is a very bad idea, but I was in hell. No going back now. With a trembling voice, I told him my favor. “Claim me.”

And just like that, I was released. The Avatar of greed recoiled from me like I’d struck him. Like I’d burned him. Eyes wide he staggered away from me, the coin falling from our fingers and rolling away.

Levi stood there beside us, his mouth open and gaping. “Wah haaaaaa?”

“What did you say?” Mammon’s voice was raspy.

Licking my suddenly dry mouth, very nervous now I ploughed ahead with my clarification. “Lucifer keeps saying how being unclaimed makes me a target. And every demon wants a piece of me. I am so sick of it!” Frustration now clearly leaking from my voice, I paced away, running a hand over my messy ponytail. “I... I need to do things now and I can't do them with this knife over my head. Like I need an escort everywhere! I had planned to ask Diavolo but...” I turned back to him. “You seem like the best option.”

Mammon was still frozen.

“That is the most asinine thing I've ever heard human and I've been around a long time.” Levi broke the silence, throwing up his hands as he pointed to the my frozen guardian demon. “And Mammon! Why they hell would you pick HIM! He would sell his soul for a single Grimm.”

“Shut up Levi!” The Avatar of Greed snarled. There was a flicker of horns over his silvery head. “I don't want ya human!”

“And that's why it has to be you.” I crossed my arms stubbornly.

“NO!”

“Pick me!” Levi slid between us, those salamander eyes suddenly hungry. “Oh the delicious experiments we could do. I've never looked inside a furie before.”

Recoiling from his proximity, I was about to step around him, but Mammon had already shoved his brother out of the way. “No one is claiming her! Not until lucifer makes up his mind.”

“Lucifer is the last demon I want anywhere _near_ me!” I snapped, some of my fury leaking heat into my skin.

“Why?” And the perceptive bastard honed in on my distress at the prospect of their eldest brother owning me. “Did something happen?”

In no mood to elaborate, I bent down and retrieved the coin, my eyes skittering away from him, unwilling to answer his very straightforward question. “Let's go Mammon. Chop chop,” I echoed his words.

But the greedy demon was shaking his head, a touch of panic to him now. “No.”

“For the love of g... Argh!” I growled, resisting the need to stomp my foot like a child denied. “Why not!”

In the moment of Mammon’s uncertainty, Levi slid behind me, his breath against my ear sending chills down my spine. “There really are better options.”

His hand wrapped around my wrist, I was back against Mammon’s side in the space of a heartbeat. Breath hard and fast, I slid slightly behind Mammon’s shoulder. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure who he had saved. Because Levi’s constant need to be at my back set my teeth on edge. “Back off Levi,” the older brother warned.

“If you don't do it...” Levi’s grin was vile. Goading. Or perhaps challenging.

“We'll go to Diavolo.”

“I don't want Diavolo. I want you!” I screamed, exasperation fissuring out of me now.

“Oh boy,” Levi shook his head sadly and I felt myself blush.

_Okay maybe I need to think before I speak._

Mammon looked back at me as if he wanted to read my mind. My soul. Anything to help him understand. Eventually he tried reason. “Ya don't know what yer sayin! The thought of rape made ya turn as white as sheet and yer ready to give me...everything! Ya have no idea what yer doin!”

It was true. Brutally honest as he usually was, there was no denying that I was discomfited by his words. But my world had fallen into hell and even though I hadn’t saved my chastity so I could sell it to the devil, I realized I had very little else to barter with here. So I figured like a bandaid was best. Fast and hard. “So tell me! Lucifer is right about one thing. This is my life. This is my hell.”

Mammon snorted and rolled his yes. “Hell isn't a place ya go to kid. Hell can be right here. In yer heart. In yer house. In yer own little world. Hell could be you!”

I felt the ground shift beneath my feet. Why did his words always turn everything upside down? Floundering a little, I stared up into those sapphire eyes. Now a little desperate. “You said I should get used to it. And you were right. There's nowhere for me to go. No one else will tell me what the hell is up with me! You're the only one who hasn't wanted to use me for whatever nefarious purposes furies are claimed for. Logically you'd be the best choice.”

“Logically, she's as dumb as you!” Levi snipped but neither of us was hearing him now.

Mammon’s eyes continued to be troubled. His hand still around my wrist so I took the opportunity to step closer to him. Imploring now. “I avenged you up there without a breath of hesitation. I can't explain it.” I felt the first crack in his armor as I swallowed my pride and pleaded. “Please, I want to be able to explain it. I'm tired of being afraid!”

I knew it. He was thinking about it, because his eyes flickered to Levi silently.

“No.” The Avatar of envy shook his head. Those orange blue eyes still wide and disbelieving. “Don't. Lucifer will skin you!”

Pulling on my wrist, I caught Mammon’s hand and dragged his eyes back to mine. “I won't _let_ him!”

And just like that I had all of Mammon’s attention. “Yeah?”

TO BE CONTINUED...


	12. I Started A Joke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Those blue eyes were no longer teasing. I had a feeling my answers were finally here and he was asking me if I was ready to hear them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all those who are still reading and especially dropping me notes of encouragement. I know my updates come slowly. But now the answers are coming and I'm trying those threads slowly.

The Avatar of Envy was visibly distressed, if his pacing was anything to go by. Mammon and I sat on the gurney he had previously occupied, looking at each other as if something had aligned. Perhaps we were finally on the same page. I had to willfully push down the uncertainty and panic that had gripped me before Mammon had agreed to talk. I had initially made my request without realizing the resistance I would have to face. Lucifer had made it seem like every demon would be dying to get in on my action. Moreover Belphie had made it seem as if Mammon was going to be the easiest to manipulate.

The last twenty minutes of my life had left my nerves a little raw. Was I really selling my body and soul to get my way? The idea had set loose a hive of nervous bees in my stomach.

Still, it was gratifying to see that at least the High Demon of Greed was listening.

“This is a really bad idea. Like in the history of bad ideas!” Levi, although, was hyperventilating and I would have taken some time to watch. Because it was entertaining as hell.

“Yer welcome ta leave,” Mammon provided with a mean grin. Almost daring him.

“This is my lab! And someone has to watch you two idiots do this!”

“No.” Mammon narrowed his eyes at his younger brother. “ _You_ just want to record us having sex.”

When there was no denial from the lord of all envy, I glared at him for good measure. “Yeah, that’s not really going to happen.”

“I can hide the faces.”

Was this guy for real? “No!” I snapped and turned to Mammon. “So, we're agreed?”

There was a silent battle behind his Persian blue eyes. I could almost see the need to agree and then a flare of panic. At least he was considering it. “I think ya oughta listen to reason before ya commit yerself.”

“Are you serious!?” Levi interjected forcefully becoming a part of our conversation, yet again. “She's ready she's willing. What the hell are you doing!?”

Even if a part of Levi’s incredulity with Mammon’s constant denial made sense, I met those orange-hued eyes and sighed. “This is why you're not sitting here with me Levi.”

“Don't romanticize this, babe.” Mammon snorted and examined his nails. “I just don't want the headache. I've been around long enough to know these temporary temptations only bring pain and suffering.”

“You're a tsundere idiot!” Poor Levi was about to pull hair.

“Tsk,” Mammon winced and caught my hand. “He's right about one thing. This is his lab. Let's go.”

“Wha_No no no, don't leave. I'll be quiet! I promise. I won't even look! Guys! Hey why doesn't anyone listen to me! Come on!”

Soon, we were walking the hallways again. And the déjà vu had me missing a step. Mammon cast me a curious glance over his shoulder, his hand still wrapped securely around mine. Okay so some things were very different. He was glowing, but his glow was now wrapped around me in a way that made the shadows inconsequential. And the heinous need to compute my ease around this demon pulled the question from my ribs. “So tell me about time here?”

“Time? Why?”

He seemed genuinely curious so I let it slide. “I know I'm not human anymore but... I find comfort knowing how long, when and such.”

This time he frowned over his shoulder at me, pulling me up a set of stairs this time. “Why the sudden interest?”

“It's not sudden.”

“Bullshit,” he called it with a snicker. “You were just promising eternity to me and you didn't even flinch.”

His clear barb smacked into my chest and I caught my breath. How do you explain to a demon you want to justify the idiotic flutter of your pulse? Maybe if enough time had passed it could be justified. I could stomach how being murdered had set my slate to blank. That my heart had taken the time to reset in a way that now allowed it to thud in anticipatory fear.

I realized Mammon had paused when his glow became brighter and he stepped closer, those blue eyes curious and confused. “What's that?”

Poor heart. It had just fallen somewhere in my stomach as the High Demon of Greed invaded my personal space. Demanding an answer. Pulling away an inch, I swallowed hard. “What?”

“You're blushing.”

My blood ignited because I was pretty sure he knew exactly why that was. Gritting my teeth, I narrowed my eyes at him. “Please don't be an asshole.”

His mouth widened into a wide wicked smirk. “But I'm so good at it.”

Slowly my heart climbed back up in my chest and calmed. Rolling my eyes, I shoved him away and he went with a chuckle as we traversed another hallway. It was weird. It felt like a lot of time had indeed passed. Like we'd walked these hallways too many times. So I told him. “This seems eerily familiar. Like walking these hallways with you is normal. Usual. Almost like I didn’t just die and leave my murderous fiancé behind.” And I didn’t continue, because I didn’t really know if there was anything else to be said. I was comfortable and it made no sense.

Mammon had stopped when I couldn’t find more words. He watched me with a dark penetrating stare. “Maybe ya have walked them with me,” he theorized. “Maybe countless times or just once. Maybe it is okay for ya to walk them with me. Like we're meant to.”

My mouth parted, something wild and crazy fluttering in my ribs and making me light headed. My breath stilted and tripped as he stepped closer again. Voice nearly a rough roiling storm, he leaned into my ear. “Or maybe yer losin’ yer mind and I'm a figment of your imagination,” he purred.

I would have stomped on his foot if it could have hurt him. Mortification chasing my racing pulse, I resisted the need to scream at him for teasing me. A barb was easier. “Sorry but my imagination can totally do better.”

But the demon wasn’t even dented as he pulled away to wink at me. “Sure about that? I mean, I am The Great Mammon.” My pulse skittered off kilter again as he lifted a hand as if to touch my face, but it slid past and grabbed the rung of a ladder right beside my head.

Now I knew he was messing with me. Looking up, I saw the thin metal ladder seemed to connect to a floating dais that was grouted to a window and the inky sky beyond. “Let me guess you plan to pitch me off the roof next to teach me a lesson about how time is relative and I could fall forever?”

Slipping past me he jumped onto a rung and held his hand out to me like a dark prince from a romance novel. “I plan to take ya somewhere Levi doesn't have surveillance. His shades are shit scared of heights. Besides if ya would like me to pitch you off somethin’ there's a perfectly available window right there on this level.”

How romantic. Scowling, I slapped away his hand and started climbing up myself. Like I’d let him lead me around this way. I might be a virgin, but I wasn’t a simpering heroine. “Not necessary. Thank you.”

I will not lie. My mind was all kinds of chaos.

But nothing could have prepared me for the world outside.

It was the most beautiful of nightmares.

The sky was black and red, broken and cracking in places. Clouds of black and Grey smoke sifting through those cracks and trailing to the ground like tear trails. They melted into an endless ocean of undulating black sand. Starless and fathomless, it felt like being suspended between two of the darkest, deepest oceans. No bottom, no end. Just endless nothing. If the carded splatter of cloud hadn’t been there, I would have been claustrophobic.

The ground itself an endless river of nothing. It could have been sand. Maybe water but it was thick and oily like it could swallow you whole.

I heard thunder, or what could have been thunder, but it felt more the air pressure changing and when I felt the oppressive weight on my ear drums I realized that was probably what it was. A constant beating of the heart of hell.

It wanted in.

Damn Mammon. What a way to give me a reality check.

The roof he had brought us on was slanting and shingled in a chalky grey stone. I saw him nimbly climb out of the window and maneuver to a patch that looked as if it belonged to him. He comfortably slid down and patted the spot beside him. Already having refused his hand, I mustered what was left of my courage to bravely stride out to him in my sneakered feet; my heart in my throat. The fall would mean pain. That much was certain. Mammon had found us a spot on one of the highest towers of the building we were in.

And what a building it was. Massive and acres of parapets and buttresses. Not quite a castle, but not much of a house. I mean I had known it was large, but from the outside, offset against all the bleeding darkness of the sky, it was an odd thing. Each part of the building seemed to come from a different reality, time and perhaps even place. I thought I saw a Mosque’s dome, Greek statues holding up a balcony, strange eight armed goddesses from something I might have seen in a Hindu temple. Even a dragon eating the sun winding around a pillar.

The strange, almost unholy mixture of faith made me frown.

“This is the house of lamentation.” He spoke without my prompting and it almost made me smile. How he would read my query and respond like it was the most natural thing between us. No filter. No secrets. When I didn’t speak he met my eyes. “Lament is universal, ya know.”

“True.” Which it was, but I was still a little in awe with what he was showing me.

“Ya got all these different divides up there. Religion. Sect. Skin. So many forms of divine finality. Down here everyone's the same. All yer left with is what yer familiar with,” those blue eyes slid through me and grasped something vital and inescapable in me. “Like time,” he finished.

Realizing all my answers were coming and that there was no reason for me to be on guard and wound so tightly, I relaxed. Hands planted behind me, I linked my legs at the ankles and settled a little more comfortably beside him. “I get it. Holding onto time is pointless. It is what it is now. But this place.” I nodded to the house. “It's still very interesting.”

“The seven of us sorta make it what we want. When we got here Diavolo gave us space.” He pointed out towards the left and I followed his gaze. “That's Diavolos castle.”

The distant shadow was much larger and a whole lot more foreboding. Where the quirky building under me seemed to hold history and something personal, the castle was very ostentatious; in its size, in it’s girth and ornamentation. “He really likes the flair doesn't he?” I remembered the red horned demon I would have belonged to.

“Hell would be boring as bricks if we didn't at least have flair.”

His words make me smile, so I offered him a quirky upturn of my mouth as I met his eyes. “You said when you got here.”

“I did,” He shrugged, dismissing my intention to pry. “Everyone comes from somewhere.”

“You're not willing to tell me.”

“I'd think ya had more pressing concerns than my origins.”

Those blue eyes were no longer teasing. I had a feeling my answers were finally here and he was asking me if I was ready to hear them. Biting my lip, the curiosity battling reason, I sighed and relented. “Fine. Tell me about Lilith. I'll ask you later about the origin story.”

That pretty mouth twisted into a grin, those eyes definitely flirting now. There was no denying it. “Yer so sure I'll tell it.”

“You're the one who insisted on explaining. I was ready to get it over with.” I couldn’t help the very silly smile as it spread across my face.

And he picked up on my lowered defenses immediately. “Oh human. Ya have no idea what yer askin’. There is no over for what it'll mean.” He watched me for a moment as if wondering whether to continue, but it was short lived. With a grunt, he relented. “Lucy will not be happy.”

“Bonus.”

I could tell he liked that. “Sacrifices carry great power,” he spoke plainly, without inflection. “Usual ones anyway. Yer a bit... Unconventional.”

“How?”

“I'm getting there. Most sacrifices are like a tube that goes both ways for the magic that they were used for when they come to us. Which means they can be containers for other, fun things like plague, misfortune, even little bags of death that we can afflict on whomever, or wherever we please.”

And I will not lie, it was still distressful to hear him speak so lightly about such things. Perhaps my demon reality was still a little muddled by human limitations of moral dos and don’ts. So I gawked at him a little. Thrown by his straightforwardness. “And virgins?” I asked timidly.

“Are powerful sacrifices since they have a direct link to heaven.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Ya know how yer preachy big daddies say adultery lands ya in hell?” The smirk he threw my way was meant to upturn my world. And it did as my eyes widened with understanding. “Virgin sacrifices are the best kinda vessels. They pack a punch and they piss those prissy bastards up in heaven the best.”

I felt a little dizzy. “Like walking time bombs.”

“More like homing missiles.”

And I felt a little sick as I winced. “How nice,” I spat with sarcasm. A little struck by his words.

“Yup! All we gota do is point ya up.” He crassly held up the wrong finger and it did nothing to cheer me up.

“Wait.” I held up a hand to halt the insane need to ask the wrong questions. My human need for right and wrong pushing, but I held it tightly. “You said I'm unconventional.”

“Hmmm. Yeah.” With a sigh he too leaned back on his hands beside me. Fingers a few breaths away. “Yeah that's yer origin story. Lilith was our sister.”

Sucker-punched by his words and the easy way they rolled off his tongue, I gasped.

Catching my shoulder, Mammon peered into my slack jawed, breathless face. “Ya always forget to breathe.”

“I'm your _sister_?” _Please say it ain’t so!_

“What?!” Mammon balked. “No! Yer like a distant, distant, very distant relative.” He glared at me as if it was my fault I put the idea in his head. He was the one who implied! “This isn't common knowledge but Lilith went to the human world eons ago. Fell in love with a human. Way before the great War.”

“What war?”

“Before heaven and hell split.”

Oh that war. “So I'm like a distant grandchild?” I asked hopefully. Completely unrelated to him? Which I thankfully did not add out loud.

“Your idiot fiancé had no idea of your descent or he woulda bargained better for your soul. But here's the pickle. He sacrificed ya to Diavolo who promised Lucy he'd never hurt Lilith or anyone related to him. Which includes us and now…well… you. Means yer fair game now babe. What's special is how ya manifested into a part of Lilith we had kinda all made peace with.”

“I'm a demon?”

 **“** Babe.” Leaning closer, he held my shoulder and I had a feeling something earthshattering was coming. “Pay attention. She left before Diavolos’ daddy and yer big daddy had a fallin’ out. Before the great War everything was up there.” He jerked a thumb up and I now I knew exactly why he’d held onto me.

The reality of it shook the very foundations of my being. “Holy shit.”

Mammon smirked wickedly. “Very holy in yer case.”

“You were all... All of you... Everyone...” I sputtered.

“No one likes to say it.” He shrugged and went back to leaning against the roof, elbows supporting his weight, one booted foot flicking on his propped up knee. “Sensitive subject ya know. So in parts. Yeah. Your lineage makes ya very powerful. Thus with the whole vengeance in your blood going furie. Now babe, yer like a personal army in your pretty virgin package.”

It made no sense. The finality of his truth had suddenly made it a little hard to breath. So I wasn’t able to filter myself. “But he said Lucifer killed Lilith.”

The high demon of Greed went preternaturally still. Like a finely honed knife.

Real fear sent a shudder through me as I watched him with troubled eyes.

He didn’t take too long. Like lightning, he caught my arms a growl set low and furious in his chest as I was dragged into him, fangs and horns like gossamer shadows barely restrained as they glimmer around him. “Where did you see Belphie?”

_I started a joke which started the whole world crying  
_ _But I didn't see that the joke was on me_

TO BE CONTINUED...


	13. Friction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was frightening how much this demon could chase fear and want through me.

So I told him.

It came out broken and a bit rushed but I learned that Mammon was a good listener. Despite his preoccupation, he released me long enough to sit on my own weight, to speak of the dungeons, the lost boy and the time I’d spent commiserating with the devil. And even though Mammon kept reminding me of time being inconsequential, I recounted my encounter with the Demon of sloth as if it had been a memory. A promise. A very old one.

When I was done, I dragged my eyes away from the cracks in the horizon to see his silver hair sifting through those finely manicured fingers as he put his head in his hands. “Damn Lucifer,” he groaned painfully as if he could see Belphie in those cells like he stood right before us. It reminded me again how these brothers were tied together. Then he was furious and growling and on his feet, kicking shingles as he glared out at the weeping clouds. “He told us Belphie went with Lilith.”

Thrown by his words, I blinked up at him in confusion. “Why would Lucifer lock him up? And why the hell would Belphie think Lucifer killed her! Which obviously he didn’t because here I am. Especially if it's not a secret she went to the human world.”

“Yeah, because it kinda is.” Shoving his hands into his pockets, Mammon glanced down at me, his mouth twisted ruefully. “It's not exactly common knowledge.”

When I frowned up at him, he must have read the judgement in my gaze.

His sigh was touched with guilt. “Many of us didn't understand her need to forfeit her eternity to be with that human. It seemed...wasteful.” A little frustrated with his own explanation, he turned and propped one foot up on a higher fold of the intricate roof and put his elbows on his knees, gazing at the grounds of the house. “I mean she could take him, keep him and have another when he passed on, but Lilith was near drunk with love. She gave it all up.” Those blue gold eyes turned to me for a moment and I felt something hitch in my chest. “I could see though. Somethings are worth it.”

 _Holy mother of…_ I licked my dry mouth, my gaze darting away in blind fear. There was no other name for it. This demon would be the death of me.

“Anyway.” He shrugged and slid back down to his previous perch beside me. “Lucifer decided it was better to let everyone think we lost Lilith in the war. Even her brothers. Easier to let her have some peace that way.”

“You knew.”

There was a flicker of discomfort across his handsome face before he grit his teeth and spoke his truth. “Lucifer seems like a tight ass but he was destroyed. I...found him. By accident of course.”

The vision he was painting suddenly made no sense, as I turned sideways to him, now looking right at him. “If that’s true, why imprison Belphie at all?”

Turning his head, Mammon gazed down at me keeping his distance for the moment. “Only lucifer can answer that Babe. But Belphie was the hardest to appease. We all thought there would be trouble. But then lucifer said he'd handle him. We...believed him. He told us Belphie took time to himself.” He drew a deep breath and shook his head. “Somethin' musta happened.”

I tried not to look judgmental. Or disbelieving. But it was uncanny no matter how I put it. “You trust Lucifer that much?”

“We followed him outa heaven without a thought.” Mammon’s answer was absolute as was the unshakable belief in his eyes. “It is beyond trust.”

And just like that I felt like a heel. Swallowing hard, I tried to will away the sudden flare of shame as I looked away from him. “I... I passed judgement based on Belphie's word. I was so angry with Lucifer.”

“Why is that, I wonder? Belphie means nothin' to ya.”

I sighed and put my face in my hands. “I was angry. It felt like betrayal. And I didn’t even stop to think. For me the idea that one brother could do that to another…I guess I saw myself in him. A bit.” Dragging my hands over my face, physically trying to scrub away the way had jumped to conclusions. Lucifer must really hate my guts. No wonder he had to speak to Diavolo about me. “Belphie told me to keep it a secret and I just agreed. I’m so stupid. And Lucifer…he didn’t deny it.”

“Mmmm. Yeah Lucy’s not so good with botherin’ with defense. He’s all offense that one.” Then something seemed to occur to him as he frowned down at me. “So why tell me?”

“I didn't want to lie to you.” And it was true. I hadn’t even though of lying. Making something up.

The corner of his mouth tilted, a soft sort gold in his eyes. “Yeah?”

Suffused with heat, I spun away from him. “Shut up. So now what do we do?”

“You really oughta leave Belphie to me.”

“Hey! You have no idea the condition he's in!”

He raised an eyebrow when I was back and in his personal space, making it all about my mission. “Ya have this nasty tendency to forget we are demons. Very powerful ones at that. Ya think puttin’ him in a fluffy prison would be a good idea?”

“I think it's not a good idea that his brothers don't know he's down there!”

He grinned as if it was entertaining to watch me get all barbed about saving his little brother. “Babe, Lucifer never does anything without good reason.”

“Why do you trust him so much! He's so shady!”

And at that Mammon threw back his head and laughed. The shock of how much it suited him set butterflies in my stomach again. Reminding me just how affected I was by this demon. He _was_ a demon. There was no reason in it. To want to make him do it again. And again. And then some more. Those Persian blue eyes were dancing. “He's my brother,” Mammon explained with a shrug. “And he's the strongest of us all. The eldest. He thinks of his family before everythin'. There's not one of us who would ever doubt that.”

“Belphie would disagree.”

“Belphie's an impulsive, hot-headed ass.” Mammon rolled his eyes and dropped down on his elbows, reclining there beside me as he tilted his head back and gazed up at the sky splitting above us. “He's so convinced humans are a waste of space he woulda set fire to the world if he had the chance. I love him, but there’s all this single minded stubbornness there that’s annoyin’ as all hell.”

“So you're just going to leave him down there?” It was a battle to keep from touching him. I mean he was all there, laying there like an invitation. Even though he wasn’t agreeing with my point of view. How messed up was I?

There was a curious tilt of his chin as he glanced my way. “If I didn't know better babe, I'd think you were feeling somethin’ for him.”

“Wha…” His words hit me like a ton of brick as I jerked away from him, mouth gaping. It took a few unintelligent tries to finally get my words out. “Kh…fff…Haa... No!” I glowered at him, hoping to drill into his head with my eyes. I almost hated him for putting the idea in my head. It didn’t escape me that his question was a double edged sword. It appeased him and threw me into chaos. I was appalled he’d considered the notion and the truth was I was feeling something for him. Pushing down the discomfiting weight of those realizations, I spat out my protest. “He's been imprisoned for God only knows how long!”

Mammon let out a long and suffering breath as he let his head fall back between his shoulders. “Do you really have to keep mentioning that preachy old dude?”

“You said I can't help be holy!”

“Wholly annoying? Yeah.” I smacked his shoulder and the demon snickered, a wicked flicker of gold in his eye. “I'd think Ya would be more worried about yer impeding loss of virginity.” Goading me to try again and I cleared my throat and looked away.

I knew I was blushing. Damn my human limitations. “I... you didn't say...”

His grin was feral. “I can.”

And just like that the banter was back. Gritting my teeth, I fortified myself and held his eyes. “Fine tell me what I have to do.”

“Bend over?”

Damn this demon and his ability to drag away any semblance of control under my feet. For a few seconds, I just gawked at him in horrified disbelief.

“Too much?” He was obviously enjoying the blow to my human sensibilities.

Well, two could play at that game. Dragging a furious breath through my nose, I rolled up to my feet. Just a tad wobbly; which was a feat in its own. He was so much more nimble than I was. “Yeah you're not going to harass me to change my mind about this claiming.” I glared down at him to find him watching me stiffly. “Although, bending over here might send me off the roof. And not in a good way.”

A muscle worked in his jaw and eventually he caved with a scowl when he realized I had called his bluff. With a snarl, he caught my hand and pulled nearly turning me into a screeching, tangled mess. “Yer such a smart ass I swear.”

Catching myself against his arm, I sat back beside him, this time closer than we had been before. The smell of his leather jacket a pleasant cinnamon and vanilla. It was the oddest thing to smell on a demon. But it was pleasant enough to leave me there pressed against his arm. “And you're hedging, Great Mammon.”

“I ain't,” he muttered, and when his thumb slid over my knuckles I realized he still had my hand. “I'm still wonderin’ who put this fool idea in yer head.”

There was no point in keeping it to myself now. “Well...it started with something Belphie said.” Mammon was completely still. The thumb that had been sending electricity zinging across my hand had gone cold. I took a deep breath and held his gaze bravely. “He suggested I make a pact with you. Then you'd have to help me get him out.”

The Avatar of Greed snorted. “Does everyone think I'm that naive?”

“Tell me about the witches and I'll let you know,” I quipped hoping to lighten the mood. Maybe get that thumb moving.

“Nice try.” My hand was released and I couldn’t suppress the wave of disappointment as it pervaded every pore I had. He gazed back to the dark horizon and shifted away from my warmth. I had to keep from letting the protest leap out of my throat. “Ya already know too much. It's the reason ya think ya can handle The Great Mammon.”

And just like that something was melting inside me as I threw caution to the wind and pressed back against his arm, my hand landing on his knee. “I promise you it's not because I think you're weak. If anything Mammon, what little I know tells me just how strong you really are.”

As his eyes came back to me, I saw the surprise part of his mouth, an incredulous ‘o’ to those gorgeous lips.

“I think you intentionally downplay your strength.” I held his gaze. “And I know everyone but Lucifer believes your act.”

He looked genuinely thrown by my words. “Why not ask him to claim ya? Ya obviously know he didn't kill Lilith now.”

I raised an eyebrow with a rueful smile. _It is so obvious you idiot._ “I didn't want Diavolo. What makes you think I'd go for Lucifer?”

Hope chased doubt across his handsome face, those dusky planes shifted with the hardening of his jaw. “Ya think you know me because of what ya saw in the basement. Yer human morals are affectin’ yer judgement. I'm a demon.”

In for a penny. I swallowed and let him hear it. “I think you're so much more than that.”

“Sounds like delusional hero worship,” he evaded.

And I knew what he was doing. He’d done it one before back in those hallways when I’d told him his eyes were pretty. I bit down on the smile that threatened across my face and winked. “Does that do it for you?”

There was that laugh again as he shoved my weight back to my side of the roof. This time it wasn’t to distance us. It was intimate. “Yer odd,” he threw back with a grumble.

Laughing, I put my hand over my mouth. Openly teasing now. Maybe flirting? “Ohmyg…” I bit my lip when he gave me warning bite of his fangs snapping shut nearly in my face. “Shit! That’s it isn’t it!” I squealed. “It does, doesn't it! You have a praise kink!”

Mammon snarled low under his breath, an unearthly guttural sound that should have sent all kinds of red flags up, but I was too busy catching my breath as he rolled over me, my hands pinned up over my head. “Why are ya tempted ta poke the beast?”

My breath coming harsh and fast, I stared up at him as a slow tremble set in my bones. I will not deny it. It was frightening how much this demon could chase fear and want through me. The constant push and pull was near breaking.

I could see the consequence of our position dawn on the demon holding me captive, but where I thought it might spook him, he merely looked contemplative. Interested to see where this was headed. And I could have missed it, but there was a flash of hungry, greedy gold as he let his eyes rove down my face, over the flutter of my lids, down the flare of my nose, to the tremble of my mouth. But Mammon didn’t devour like I thought he would. Could.

“Why aren't you tempted?”

Those beautiful eyes that had me from the beginning, slid up to me. The tips of his silver bangs teasing my forehead as she raised an eyebrow. “What makes ya think I'm not?”

Heat spread through me like a tidal wave and sent gooseflesh across my skin.

Mammon sighed and I felt him transfer both my wrists to one hand. The other slid down my hair, deceptively thin fingers slipping along my jaw as I drew a shuttered breath. Eyes threatening to fall closed. “Claimings are messy babe,” he murmured. “That's why I'm not a fan. There will be blood. There will be madness. Sure you still wana belong to a demon?”

I stilled beneath him because I could tell his question was important. What ever happened next would change everything. Obviously, I had questions. I mean this is me. “Belong in what way?”

“Yer soul might be celestial but that blood of yours it'll be infernal.” As if his words weren’t bullets against the very soul he was talking about, Mammon wound a strand of my hair around a finger. Toying. Playing. “I told ya all sacrifices are vessels. Yer vessel will be mine to paint in _my_ colors.”

And I tried. I really did, but the words sprang from me before I could choke them down. “I look good in gold.”

His mouth widened into a smirk, the hungry greed leaking back into his eyes as he narrowed them at me. Playing my game. Almost as helpless to its machinations as I was. “Cheeky human. I like your mouth.”

My heart beat like a jackhammer in my ribs and I felt my own gaze drawn to his. The distance was an itch now. Dear god, how it itched now.

“I'm worried,” Mammon murmured still contemplative, eyes on the lock of hair in his captivity. “What givin up yer will, will do to your mouth.”

Attention snapped to his words, I blinked. “My will? Like controlling a slave?”

“Like a puppet,” he explained unabashedly. Unapologetic. “And my puppet will be a one woman army. Ya'll decimate and avenge how I please. Ya have no idea how temptin’ that is.”

And I would have spiraled into the questions, the doubt, the what-ifs, but Mammon sharpened my focus on him as he pressed closer. There was an inevitability to where this was headed now. “What about where I want to decimate and cut?” I asked with a husky voice. Those sunfire eyes were nearly completely gold. It took every ounce of my will to remind him of my truth. “I am a furie. There's an actual job description there remember? And…Simon.”

He seemed to understand it. Like he could see what I wanted. What I was hungry for. “I won't be in yer way furie. Besides, I did say I like yer mouth.” He smirked. “If I will it to my whim, ya won't be sassin’ me anymore. That's no fun.”

I couldn’t smother the spread of my pleased smile. Stupid and satisfied. “Careful Avatar of Greed, it sounds like you like me.”

“I don't. Yer just too much fun to give up.”

“Same,” teased with a wink then a stab of guilt went through me. Sharp and reminding. Time gnawed at me again. Reminding me that I felt something before this and that I was feeling it again. Or willing to let myself feel it. For this demon. “And I was getting married not...how long has it been?” I asked him, knowing there was no real answer there.

But the damned creature only closed his eyes and dropped his head, his mouth a hairs breadth away. “Do ya care?”

And I didn’t. Every inch of me was screaming. “No.” I admitted with a tremulous whisper. “Is that why this seems like it's more than a claiming?”

“Isn't that why ya picked me? I don't do shit anyway but my way.”

His cocky confidence made me bite back a smile. “I swear I just thought you were really hot.”

The freak only purred, licked the seam of my lips and set my world on fire. Mouth opening on a gasp, I felt my body coil like a spring and that was exactly what he wanted. This was Mammon and he held nothing back. Eyes rolled back in my head, body trembling, I felt his whisper against my throat. His hands had slid around my waist, wrapping around my back, lifting me into him. “Hold onto me.”

I barely had time to pull down my arms and lock them around his neck, thinking he was going to finally give me the respite I wanted. _Kiss me already!_

But the demon would never make things simple. There was a crack of bone and then I was snatched up into the air as his wings flared open and caught the wind.

I screamed. But this time he did not protest as I hung onto him like a monkey.

Mammon flew high up into the sky, leaving my stomach somewhere on the roof. But my heart. Oh it was thundering and alive and exalted as he spiraled around a parapet, wound through an archway. Any doubt that my world had changed vanished as I buried my face into his neck and laughed. Calling him a lunatic and other names that were probably more endearing. Words none of us were ready for. And he was still beautiful in all his black wings, curling horns and his sin. “Where are we going?”

“The Court of Greed. Bout time ya see yer new home.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading. I'm sorry for the slow build, but I like my romance, slow and intense. Hope you like it!


	14. Where my demons hide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was no denying what I wanted and who I was. There was nothing divine about vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have made Mammon’s court of greed before and to be honest, that’s how I see it. So I borrowed it from my other story 'Unveiled'. And this chapter was born of listening to too much of Imagine dragons. Thus the excerpt at the end.

Simeon ran a hand through his slant cut hair, his celestial garb stained with dirt around the longer trails. He wished he’d had time to grab some human clothes before wading through the filth of this world. Dusting his sleeve he looked up as the man came out of the coffee shop. “Have you found her?”

The mercurial warlock slid into a chair before his companion and despite the curt demand of the angel, he smiled serenely. Usually his friend was the epitome of calm and politeness. But Solomon had caught him on a bad note, given him bad news and now Simeon was stuck in a bad mood. Not that the warlock blamed him. Or at least he tried not to. “You know, I do apologize for dragging you away from your recreational endeavors, but you did say I should inform you if something was out of the ordinary.”

“Yes, yes. I know.” Simeon grumbled and adjusted his long white coat tails. “It is not my activities that have me in a sour mood.”

“Indeed.”

The angel looked hard at the warlock. “You are certain it was Riven.”

“You saw it in that memory. I went to great lengths in order to preserve her head so you could see it for yourself.”

“That is not Lilith.”

“But she wields Riven exactly the way it needs to be.”

“Troubling how a new a fledgling not only found it, she managed to command the glaive,” Simeon sighed and rubbed his temple. Every rational part of him wanted to take this to the authorities and let them deal with it. But the fact that it was the fallen angel in question, the one they had lost, the one who started it all, there was no way he was going to report anything unless he was sure.

“She had a human life.”

Simeon’s eyes snapped up to the smiling warlock and held. “Don’t fuck with me. Furies are celestial.”

The warlock smiled at the uncharacteristic outburst, but it was almost justified. He himself had to check and recheck the facts before bringing them to the angel. As High warlock and Simeon being the oldest representative of the celestial realm, they had worked together on high priority cases together. But nothing as bizarre as this. “This one is…not. Very human. Very ordinary. She even had social security. A few parking tickets. She disappeared the night before her wedding almost a year ago. Her fiancé happens to be a member of the Eastern Coven. I was able to track him down, but he was too distraught to offer more than broken recounts of her disappearance. He said he suspected she was with another.”

The angel’s face contorted with incredulous disbelief. “Are you serious? His fiancée turns up a newly incarnated furie with a weapon from a fallen angelic warrior and you’re saying he was _distraught_!?”

“Simeon…”

On his feet now the angel gathered all the dusty finery of his dress now. “Take me to him. And for God’s sake find me a decent pair of pants!”

Solomon the wise took a deep fortifying breath. He really shouldn’t think of killing the angel. It was barely noon. Besides, he still had to tell his friend who had accompanied said _fiancée_ on her killing spree in France. It wasn’t everyday the most beautiful fallen angel in all of heaven and hell made an appearance in the human world.

First Simeon and now Lucifer. Solomon dreaded the headache he knew was coming.

*

My new reality is a strange amalgamation of macabre and magnificent. Or maybe my vision is just skewed now. Mammon’s domain was a frightening combination of horror and beauty. He was greed; there was no doubt that his court was a manifestation of everything that he was. But I had seen so many sides of him and despite the glaring reality of him, I felt out of place. Off balance and obviously intimidated.

His world was a construct of glass and gold. Endless daises of near impossible clarity and size suspended in unconnected levels over a sea of roaring, roiling gold. I had never seen clamor and calm come together this way before. But as Mammon flew over a smaller of the glass islands, the reality of those glass platforms became clearer.

His hell would be like drowning.

There were doors that would open to allow people or souls, or whatever currency was king here. People would walk through and gape in horror at their final destination. Some on their knees, some in awe, some maddened with laughter and whispers. And there was no distinction. Old, young, brown, white, they were all bare and broken by the decisions that had led them here. Some platforms were crowded, some sparse. Some would jump into the screaming, screeching Grimm, some would fall. Some were being pitched off by the same shadows that had converged around Mammon in Levi’s lab.

The largest of the platforms we landed on was different. Piles of Grimm were crowding the edges and I could tell these souls were different. The roar of the sea was not as loud. Not as angry. But the air was harder. Bleaker.

It was a throne room in the loosest sense. Gilded pillars extended up into the darkness seeming to go on forever. Their bases were lost in the heaps of Grimm where the people crowded. In the shadows of the pillars I saw some buried. Some trying to climb out, some laying there helpless. Women dressed in endless jewels, but gaunt, crying and always hungry. There were men, on their knees and counting, losing their place, then counting again. Mad whispers and furious screams when nothing seemed to satisfy them.

I had never seen a clearer or sadder picture of the human condition.

Mammon had put me down there in the middle of the madness and when I realized I couldn’t watch anymore, I turned to see him resplendent on his throne. Now garbed in his demon form, I realized he looked more like the prince of hell he had been all along. All black leather, demon horns, curling like the shiniest onyx and wings of the softest suede draped around him like a cape.

The illusion of his human beauty was only further glamorized. I felt my throat go dry.

The corner of his mouth tilted up and I knew he could see what I was feeling. He leaned back in his shamelessly ostentatious throne, one leg lifting to drape over the arm as he leaned on the other and put his chin on his fist. “What do ya think?”

To say I was disconcerted would be an understatement. And there was no filter where this demon was concerned. So I took a deep breath and cast one more glance at the…people. Those that were especially indebted to the Avatar of Greed. The ones with the largest liability. “Do they ever stop?”

Mammon’s mouth quirked in a twisted smile. “Nope.”

There was no remorse in his answer. Just fact. “So there's no end?”

“To the greed?” He scoffed. “No. Not for most.” Sitting up he let his own eyes wander over his subjects, maybe slaves. Maybe nothing. “And so they find me. Sell me their souls. Their family. Their children. Their everythin’. And when they die they come here to either continue greeding or fling themselves into cocytus. The river of lamentation. It connects most of our seven realms. So really from one frying pan to another.”

There were so many emotions in those words. For a moment I was staggered by the explanation. He was cocky, but there was also a hint of disappointment now. Maybe some weariness. I wondered how long he’d been doing this. Standing judgement on his sin. Damn, but it was hard to escape the claws of time. Walking up to him, I didn’t hide that a part of me was overwhelmed, but I knew he also needed the simplicity of our back and forth. “Eternity can suck.”

Those blue gold eyes were soft, but honed on me. He nodded. “Yup.”

“So the House of Lamentation?”

“They never stop askin’ of me. Gets tiresome. Even for my brothers. So we need a break.”

Memories of the common room came without bidding and I realized that no matter how much they denied the confines of time. There was no denying that they could still feel it. “Sounds like a hard job.”

“Mmmm,” he murmured softly but his smile and those eyes were suddenly wicked. “But for amusement we plot and play and send hapless vessels to cause some well-deserved chaos and mayhem. It's only fair.”

I smothered my need to smile at that. Because really, I had to be a special kind of messed up to find humor in downplaying the true nature of hell. That we were mere pawns to these beings. Or I had been. “What do _they_ send?” I lifted a finger towards the rival realm. Or at least its general location. Who knew if it really was up there or not.

“Preachy light bearers of truth and justice.”

“They punish you?”

“Nope. They usually only punish our weapons of choice for selling their souls.”

That made me pause as I looked at the already suffering souls. “That's…really messed up.”

“We're allowed to play but the balance must remain. Nobody wants another war babe. Not your daddy and not mine.”

What an endless cycle they lived. And when I realized why he was painting a bleaker picture with each set of words, I sighed. “I see what you’re doing Mammon. You hope to sway me. If I cash in on that favor, I'll end up here.”

His eyes lit with triumph. “They all do.”

There was a throb in my temple now, my eyes demanding I take another tally of them. To see my fate. Was I really doing this? But it was easier to be straight with him. “I don't wana be like…” And I had to look at the woman adorned in the finery as she wailed. “Them.”

Mammon swung his leg down and sat up straighter. Placing his elbows on his knees, his hands steepled, he watched me as if ready for what came next. “This court ain’t yer cup of tea.”

I blinked startled. “Whom exactly are you advocating for?”

“Diavolo.”

“Excuse me?!” And just like that, I was furious with him. “Are you still trying to peddle me off to him! I thought we were past that? And besides, you said he promised Lucifer that he wouldn’t lay a finger on me!”

“If you ask him, that’s consent. Where he lives. My world will seem like the bowls of our realm. Trust me princess, his castle is more your speed.”

If it was meant to me an endearment, the word ‘princess’ set my blood on fire. I wanted to spring on him, my breath now hissing as I fisted my hands. He was dismissing me. How dare he! “Back on the roof, what the hell was that?”

“Back on the roof, ya didn't look like ya were goin’ to throw up on me.”

The conniving little shit. What did he expect that I would take it all in stride? He meant to throw me off balance. Despite how I’d felt. How I’d reacted to him on that roof, he was giving me another out! And the audacity of his sudden need to evade was grating on my patience.

When I hadn’t immediately responded to his retort, he smirked. Mistaking my silence for doubt rather than the righteous fury it was becoming. “I'm very shiny I know.”

“No. Levi was right. You’re a tsundere idiot! And for the record, when I look at you, I'm not seeing the gold.”

He frowned at the snap and crackle of my tone. “Get yer eyes checked.” Lifting his arms out as if to gesture to the glaring certainty of his court, he snorted. “That's all there is.”

“Enough with the bullshit.” Nearly snarling and vibrating with the need to smack him, I stepped up to him a finger pointed to him emphatically. Oh yeah, I was well and truly furious now. “You gave that Grimm to that boy. You do not want him here. Where's the loophole Mammon. I know you have one.”

“There ain't one.”

Riven began to seethe against my skin and the world around me had gone eerily quiet. So my demand was loud. Very loud. “TELL ME!”

Mammon stilled, as did the entirety of his court. In our periphery those shadows now loomed and slid closer to his throne. Converging. Protective of him now. They saw me for a threat. But Mammon, he only raised an eyebrow. “Sorry babe. Bargaining with me goes one way.”

It was fast spiraling out of control.

There was no way in hell I would ever be one of them. Ever be satisfied with living a life of endless hunger.

The fire in my veins was starting to sing. My hand reaching behind me to gasp my weapon as the previously pre-occupied members of his court began to watch me. Step closer. Shadow and human. Hells bells! Mind racing and breath harsh, I licked my dry lips; my frame near vibrating with restraint. I did not want to lose it here. I did not want to give in to the madness. Mammon’s Grimm was hot in the pocket of my jeans. Burning to be let out. To join the others. And the numbers were starting to show. The souls were beginning to scream louder and Mammon looked back stoically. As if he’d known I wouldn’t be able to handle it. As if he’d seen me do this a thousand times.

And that was when it occurred to me. I hadn’t don’t this yet. Not yet. Looking at him sharply, I left Riven in my belt and held up my hands. Letting out a slow, whistling breath. Forcing myself to calm. “What if I didn't bargain?”

“What?” The Avatar of Greed jerked like I’d slapped him.

The fury dying in my skin, hissing and fissuring out of my pores, I stepped up to him. “What if I gave you freely?”

The demon was fast, but my words had turned him to ice.

Something dark and hungry unfurled inside me. Exciting, predatory and very, very powerful. The essence of it nearly made me smirk. “You said ‘consent’ right?” I walked to stand between his parted knees now and on that high throne, his face was right there. So I held his gaze as I pulled his Grimm from my pocket. It was a flick of my thumb, but the sound was deafening as Mammon took a startled breath, his eyes following its trajectory as it sailed through the air and fell with a near maddening crash into the pile of coins beside his throne.

The demon lord grit his teeth and leaned back in the throne, a touch of genuine anger and a healthy dose of fear there. Only he wasn’t afraid of me. I could tell.

I tilted my head and smiled. “What does consent change?”

“Everything,” he spat out.

I didn’t dare blink even though my blood and soul was singing and dancing the Indian rain dance around my stroke of genius. But I was most happy how despite it all, he was still completely honest with me. Now perhaps reluctantly so. “Do you want me Mammon?”

My question was meant to throw him. It was meant to cut past the bullshit. Past the eventualities, the weave of fate and lean directly on the one thing I was counting on: the inevitability of choice.

When he merely looked back at me, I felt a quake in my limbs. There weren’t many places to go from here but forwards. Even though it was a hair’s breadth, it felt like a chasm. But propriety be damned, virgin or not, I knew what I wanted. Throwing off the last of those shrouds that bound my human inhibitions, I advanced.

I put my hands on the arms of his chair and climbed into the throne. There was a flash of panic in those beautiful blue gold eyes as my knees went down around his hips and I flattened my hands on the solid gold back, trapping him underneath me. And I will not deny how potent that made me feel. How free. Now looking down into his upturned face, my nails nearly screeched against metal as I held myself from melting down onto him. To cover him completely until every inch of him was…mine.

“Diavolo said I'd get a choice,” I whispered huskily, unable to keep my eyes from straying to his mouth.

And Mammon dared not speak.

“Maybe it was this one?”

And then as if it was dragged from him, he swallowed and spoke. “No. Lucifer didn't want to tell ya. You can leave us and it's all rainbows and butterflies.”

Sucking in a breath, I pulled my eyes up to his and stared. No. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t! “What?”

“Up there.”

Bastard! To think I’d assumed victory was already mine. I forgot how much this demon liked to drag the ground out from under me. And to hit me with a doozy like this one. It was the worst kind of cruel.

Heaven.

That wasn’t a concept I had ever considered. Not when I was alive and certainly not when I’d come to Diavolo’s realm. I could be up there? The fury of how he should have told me that from the beginning almost made me spring away from him, my mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood and bile. But then I remembered why I had never thought of heaven.

I wanted to hurt Simon.

Or possibly kill him.

Or maybe bathe is his blood. If I wanted, I don’t know, I hadn’t come to that bridge yet.

The finality of one thing had stuck with me since the moment I opened my eyes in Diavolo’s castle. It was finite enough to be written into my skin. And there was no denying what I wanted and who I was. There was nothing divine about vengeance. “Up there?” I threw his words back at him with a flick of venom. He had twisted the knife so well.

“Yup.”

The need to touch him was near painful now. Dear sweet Mammon. His last gambit had been thrown. Now he had nothing. “Do you want me to stay?”

“Stay. Leave. We take care of family.” He couldn’t shrug, but I saw it. The vulnerability in his denial.

The choice was made. It was a little sad to see him imagine my answer. Maybe no one had asked him what he wanted. But one thing was very clear. If I told him I wanted to be flown up there to the white fluffy clouds, I knew he would take me. All I had to do was say it. “And you?”

The demon snarled. His hands nearly cracking the arms of his gilded prison as I pushed. “For fucks sake woman. Haven't I said enough!”

“You haven’t given consent,” I purred, leaning down so I filled his vision. Filled his world so he could see nothing else.

And for the first time Mammon looked enraptured, barely breathing. “I will not survive you, will I?”

“I will make sure you survive everything,” I promised, one hand leaving the back to glide my fingers cross the smooth cut of his jaw. Like silk stretched over steel.

“Why does that sound ominous?” He grumbled, his own hand slipping around my waist.

The evitability was glaring and real now. I looked up into his eyes, the tips of my fingers pressing gently on his chin. Preparing him. “Because I am not all rainbows and butterflies.” Mammon hissed out a breath, desperate and burning. “Nothing made sense before Mammon. Not my death. My hell. My past. None of them were of my choosing. But you high demon of greed, I choose freely.”

“Yes,” he growled and one hand speared into my hair as he dragged my mouth down for a bruising, breathless and claiming kiss.

> Don't want to let you down, but I am hell bound  
> Though this is all for you, don't want to hide the truth  
> No matter what we breed, we still are made of greed  
> This is my kingdom come, this is my kingdom come
> 
> When you feel my heat, look into my eyes  
> It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide  
> Don't get too close, it's dark inside  
> It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide
> 
> They say it's what you make, I say it's up to fate  
> It's woven in my soul, I need to let you go  
> Your eyes, they shine so bright, I want to save that light  
> I can't escape this now, unless you show me how
> 
> _Excerpt from 'Demons' By Imagine Dragons_

TO BE CONTINUED...


	15. Incandescent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was pointless to hold back. Mammon was going to go all the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I separated this chapter from the last because of its slightly explicit nature. I'm not much of a smut writer (so nervous about how it turned out), and some readers aren't for them. So if you're not looking for raunchy Mammon action, by all means just skip this chapter. To the others, enjoy! And don't forget to comment.

They say you should never compare your lovers. Especially if another is on top of you. Or in this case under you. And even though every fiber of my being wanted to never think of Simon’s filthy hands on my skin, there was no way for me to be prepared for Mammon’s.

I was on top, but it did little tip the power. And maybe we hadn’t really come from a place of great love and emotion, but there was something very familiar about it. It clicked and came like an explosion from every pore in my body. The desire. It came like a flash fire inferno that only burned harder and faster the longer I kissed him and I kissed him so, so very long.

Like a thousand base drums there was a steady building of a rhythm. I slanted my mouth against him and licked into him. He tasted of honey and cinnamon in a best kind of sin. All warm and spicy. He opened beneath me and still…it was not close enough. Not strong enough. Not enough at all. I slid me hand through his silvery strands and that was when the first staccato beat of my blood turned backwards. It was like a pull inside my chest that had nothing to do with anything human or simple or pretty. It turned everything inside me backwards in a way that would never be explained.

He was the most lethal, finely honed knife of desire and I’d never been on the receiving end of so much. The way his breath rushed into me, dragged mine from my lungs, hissed between our wet, parted mouths then burned away; it was like leaking rock music while standing in front of those big ass speakers. I was blown away by him and Mammon only kissed me harder, his fingers searing across my scalp, his lips, teeth and tongue nothing short of devouring.

For two people who had fallen into mere circumstances we found ourselves wading in pretty deep. And with each deep driving pull of his mouth I knew, it would only take us deeper.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, past the screaming of my pulse or the drumbeat of my blood pounding in my ears, I remembered we were being watched. That there were eyes on my back. Where his fingers left white spots as he pulled me down against him. Where his teeth pulled on my bottom lip. Where his hips jerked up hungrily.

And strategically as I was placed, the first press of him between my legs tore a groan from me, that so broken that it felt as if I’d never used it before. Which was stupid. I hadn’t had sex in the most biblical way, but then Diavolo’s words tore through the haze of my desire induced stupor.

_“I regret to inform you, that your to be husband was in fact, not an idiot. What you were doing, isn’t sex.”_

Nothing could be truer in that moment as Mammon’s fist tightened into the base of my ponytail and with one slash of his fingers, the band holding it at bay was shredded. Still lost in the heady taste of his mouth, I had barely slid my hands to his neck before his hands flattened down my shoulder blades, gripped and the clinical white shirt was pulled into two. Those white painted nails were now scouring lines into my back. The eyes could see those too.

Rocking against the hard tease of him between my legs, my poor knees screamed for respite. I could recommend moving somewhere softer, maybe more private but we weren’t done kissing. Did I mention how I couldn’t get enough?

Mammon wasn’t faring much better, his breath was hard, harsh and faster. The urgency now lightening the golden in his skin, those eyes flickering from blue to gold and back to blue as he tried to reign in the demon.

And I should have been scared. How fast this was spiraling out of my control could only mean we were burning too quickly, too bright. Some shit would break.

But neither of us cared.

I felt the length of my hair coil around a fist and got time to draw a shuttered breath before my head was dragged back. Nails skidding against the studs on the shoulders of his jacket, I could barely hold myself in place as he licked a trail of wet fire down my throat. And he let me feel the scrape of those fangs. It was probably meant to tame, but it only made me hotter. Maybe because he was so reverent. Maybe there was something wrong with me. It was hard to anticipate his next move with his hold still keeping my neck exposed. I tugged and hissed out a protest but everything turned into more music as I felt one finger hook into the front of my prim white bra and cut through it like a hot knife.

With the rush of the cold air came the heat of his mouth and everything turned to madness in my head. Fingers spearing back into his hair, I arched like a bow, and soon enough there was no need for him to hold my head back.

Those long, deceptively strong fingers uncoiled from my hair and I felt both his hands under the curve of my ass. There was a growl of hunger against my sternum and I was lifted up and completely into his mouth. The rough slide of his tongue against my nipple, the clench of his hands on my flesh reminded me I was in the arms of the high demon of greed and he could ply me to his whim if he wanted.

Spiraling higher, nearly coming right there in his arms, for his entire court to see, I realized what I’d gotten myself into.

There was another pass of his hand through the long cascade of my hair before his entire hand wrapped around the expanse of my head, fingers threaded there with a gentleness that hadn’t been there before. But it wasn’t lost on me how he could easily crush me with a squeeze of his fingers. Like a wicked little reminder. Or perhaps…a distraction. Because I’d barely drawn steady breath before I felt a flick of his fingers against the waistband of my jeans and he delved in with a sure, confident thrust.

Jerking with a surprised gasp, I caught his wrist instinctively. Utterly futile against his conquest because I could not deter him a second. Not because I didn’t want him to touch me, but because I was so close to the edge. This time there would be no brakes. I could feel his wrist rotate beneath my grasp, allowing his long sinewy fingers to slide into the liquid heat between my thighs. And then I realized it was pointless to hold back. Mammon was going to go all the way. With light exploding from every pore in my body, I bowed over him and Mammon tipped his head back watch me come apart.

And come apart I did, as his fingers curled and slid into my body, turning everything I was to fireworks. Screaming through my release, I felt a flare of fire against my back, my spine arching nearly inhumanly as my bones began to adjust. I had come before. But I knew with every fiber of my being that Mammon had sparked something different.

As I came down from the intoxicating haze of coming so quickly and so completely, I realized two things. The crowd around us had began to hiss, and there was something soft and dancing to the waves of my orgasm.

Twisting my head, my breath caught in my throat as the two very white, very feathery wings extended to full wingspan. Oh and incase it wasn’t clear: they were growing out of my shoulder blades! “What the hell,” I breathed incredulously.

There was a husky chuckle. “Now that’s a standing ovation,” the demon purred against my throat, his arms wrapped around my back now and I felt the scrape of nails against my spine.

Eyes darting around, I stared in horror as the shadows that had stayed at bay now oozed closer and the souls lost were screaming, crying, hands extended to me as if I was their salvation. The shadows reacted to my mentioning the big daddy and now I looked like one of his emissaries. The reality of my new existence came like a hurtling freight train. I did NOT want to be the Angel in hell.

“Mammon…” I whimpered, partly because I was scared shitless but mostly because he still had his fingers inside me.

“Babe, eyes on me.”

It was painfully hard to pull my gaze back to him, the elation of my orgasm fading to bone deep terror. I stared down at him. “What did you do?”

“Wasn’t me.” He grinned rocking up against me, his mouth open against my chin, teeth scraping there. It was like being pulled in two directions. A very human, panicked part of me was tugging on the slow haze of my need, to give into the promise of his touch. It wanted to jump away and screech and scream about the reality of the two new appendages now descending to settle as Mammon nipped up to my ear. His hands now soothing against my back, but those wicked fingers never ventured up to my shoulder blades.

I wanted answers. It was easier to compartmentalize when I had all the data.

His hand slid up to cup my breasts and I shivered. Or Mammon could keep doing what he was doing.

Eyes slipping shut, I felt a shudder of want sweep though me again. The now larger, darker, less human part of me wanted more. More freedom. More absolution. Just more. Greedy as hell now too.

The warm sinuous tongue slid into my ear and I melted back into his arms, my hands spearing back into his hair. “Breathe,” he whispered and I hadn’t really realized I was holding it. It was insane how he was both throwing me off and pulling me back to the edge. The strange dichotomy and push and pull of my reality was near shattering.

“Last chance human,” he offered, his mouth still permanently attached to my flesh.

Dear sweet Mammon. If there was ever a worse time to give me an out. So instead I used him to ground myself. Being dead did not mean I had to give up living and despite how everything was a means to an end, I wanted to live. With him. No poofy wings could change that. Coiling my fingers into those glittering onyx horns and I rolled down harder and deeper against him. “No thanks.” And so I kissed him again. The demon rippled beneath me, going from his demon to something faster, darker and way more inhuman than I’d ever seen him. Almost feral. Like the force of my greed had dropped a veil somewhere. And I didn’t care. I only wanted more. “Claws out demon boy,” I whispered against his fanged mouth. “Towel magic us somewhere we won’t be interrupted.”

“No one would dare.” He held my gaze and I went still at the implication. “We do this here babe, or not at all. What I got planned fer ya, they need to see who ya are. Who we become.” A white painted nail trailed down my nose, over the tremble of my mouth, his eyes following its wake as if he was splitting me down the middle and I breathed hard. Fucking great, I die a virgin only to go down screaming in front of a hell-full of shades and lost souls. All human sensibilities be damned now.

“Fine.” In for a penny. I was beyond human anyway. “Lose the clothes then. I’m done waiting.”

The finger now circling a breast like a clock tick, he smirked, those eyes dancing as electricity zigged through every fiber of my being. “I always did like your bravado, misplaced as it is.” There was a flash of darkness, the abyss I’d only seen once before, and my wish was granted.

Skin slid against skin and I gasped, my vision cracking as suddenly every hard, sinuous inch of him was pressed against me.

My hands clawed into his shoulders, eyes slamming shut as I stilled over him. The hard length of him completely fit between the heat of my legs, touching every wet intimate part of me. The shock of feeling my breasts press against his chest, those white tattoos marred by my flesh, I sat there helplessly still. My forehead sheened with sweat, I felt him breathe a tad erratically against my sternum, his breath throwing my heartbeat off kilter. The jut of his chin nuzzled my cheek almost imperceptivity as I let out a whimper. Damn womanly pride. I was suddenly very glad Simon was a fumbling, laying, deceiving piece of shit.

Mammon was worth the wait.

And If I had wanted to be claimed by him, The Avatar of Greed had given me exactly that. With the way his emotions seeped through every clench of his fingers, the possessive desire of how his breath also whispered my name and cursed it. The awe flickering through those beautiful eyes now gone completely gold. There would be no denying it now. He was all I could think of.

“Hold very still babe,” he whispered. “There ain’t no way to tell how much restraint I have to do this right.”

Something old and instinctual fluttered inside me, beating against my ribcage, knowing whatever came next would change everything. Even what I’d become. The wings snapped open, nearly furious, knowing what he meant. But Mammon’s hands were firm against my back and I clutched him tighter.

I opened my mouth to speak, I didn’t really know what, but his head ducked just as his hands went back to lifting me against him and he swallowed one of my nipples into his mouth. With a cry of pleasure, the shock of the unknown singing over every inch of my skin, I lost myself in the streaks of lightning his mouth put into my very bones. It was exactly like he kissed. Deep, greedy, demanding and yearning. Exactly what he needed to do to turn me into a puddle of mush.

So when I felt the hard jut of his head against my slick opening, I could only whimper and hold my breath before I was carefully, agonizingly and slowly impaled on him. Mammon hissed out a breath against my chest, his bigger body quaking under me. Almost like I burned. A streak of concern like I hadn’t felt before had me wrapping my arms around him, soothing him. My mouth molding against his temple, willing myself to relax and to imbue some of that into him. I wanted to reassure him that I wasn’t going to hurt him. To still the sudden clamor of my soul and the frantic fight or flight of my blood. Because I could feel the vibrating tension of his own restraint. He didn’t want to hurt me. “Shhhh,” I whispered reassuringly as my body continued to rebel against his intrusion. Maybe it was my soul. “You can’t break me now.”

His shoulders shook and I hugged him tighter. But when the first cracked burst of laughter broke from him, I blinked and frowned down at him. “Yeah, you better not be laughing at _me_ demon boy.” Still snickering, Mammon lifted his head and my breath hitched in my chest, a chill skating down my spine.

There was a smear of blood on his bottom lip. My blood.

It was then that I realized he’d bit me. Staring down at the puncture marks against the swell of my left breast I breathed out a shuttered breath when I saw a black flare of ink in the shape of a raven. My mind was a chaos of spiraling nonsense curses in every language I’d ever known. Breathing shallow and head light, I stared down as he lifted a finger, the platinum rings glistening, he swiped the blood off that gorgeous bottom lip and slid it into his mouth.

Oh. Fuck.

To my desire-laden brain it was like upturning a gallon of fuel on a kindling.

“Open yer mouth fer me.”

I would have offered him my soul on my knees if he wanted. Become one of his supplicants, begging for his shiny self, if he just started moving!

But then I saw it. Right there on the tip of his tongue was a pearl of something black and opaque. Like a drop of thick tar; only it didn’t glisten, did not reflect any light. It was darkness and I knew exactly what he was sharing with me. What he was offering. And where a part of me was screaming self-preservation, all I could see was the promise in those Persian blue eyes.

The wait felt like an eternity. Perhaps it was a good thing time was a human concept. In that reality, Mammon would have thought my hesitation was doubt. Might have made him doubt himself. Maybe even feel rejected.

But he was a demon and I was a Furie.

I lifted my hands to cup his jaw and pulled that beautiful mouth back to mine.

Something jarring and electric streaked through me and I felt it ricochet into him. The taste of him still honey and cinnamon. Whatever he’d offered, whatever I’d accepted, we now shared it. The realization of something. Something that now colored the both of us.

I felt the blossoming fear in my wings. They were afraid, but I was beyond fear now. His hands streaked down and caught the base of my thighs. He lifted me against him, pulling me nearly completely off the hard pulsing length of him, before letting me fall back down, in a way that threw stars behind my eyes. And where I’d been dreading the possible pain, there was only sweet scorching pleasure. Perks of being dead, but who the hell gave a fuck at the moment. Mammon was moving. He was slipping and sliding into me with a rhythm unfamiliar and yet akin to the way he always moved. A sharp stab, a slow teasing rotation, a hasty retreat and a hard purposeful thrust back.

All I could do was hold on.

And for that moment, the fury of anything from my past was wiped away with the flood of his untamed greed, the way he held nothing back. And I remembered his words.

_“There ain't no point in givin' anything little virgin, unless you’re givin’ it yer all.”_

A simple claim now became something akin to a supernova of unknown, maddening feelings between us. None of what we shared could or would ever make sense.

I came once, screaming, careening inside the explosion of nerve singeing pleasure. And still he rolled and slid. I cried out and pushed and pulled, until he wrung out a second orgasm. Eyes wide, I almost sobbed as it built again with the force of the freight train before he plunged harder, deeper and erratically inside me. And I came the third time with a silent cry, mouth open, breath stalled in my lungs before he finally slowed, emptied and stopped.

Shaking, literally twitching we sat in a breathless, wet mess on his ridiculously ostentatious throne. The heat of my unfurled emotions had settled into a soft haze deep in the fathoms of myself. His powers had tuned themselves and those eyes were all blue. Calm, satiated and all liquid sapphire. We held the gaze, his court quiet around us and we both knew this was a first.

We would return to each other. Again. And again. And always.

Infinitely out of breath, I was allowed a moment to take in my surroundings. His court had faded into darkness. Or perhaps the darkness had enshrouded us because now we were alone.

Mammon let his demon fade back into his human shroud. And he was beautiful, like the finest blend of almond and warm golden honey. I would never get tired of looking at him; horns or no horns.

“No more peanut gallery?”

“I think they’ve seen enough to know how it is now.”

“How is it now?” My words rasped through a mouth that had forgotten everything else but how to be attached to him.

“Mutual.” He breathed against my cheek. “Consensual.” He bent his head, his mouth sending a wave of melting heat against my ear as he purred. “Heady.” I shivered as he nuzzled against my temple and the fire came again as did the strange pull of my blood. Like it roiled to his command. “Mine.”

“Funny.” Lifting trembling fingers, I mapped the planes of his face. “I was thinking the same thing.”

He shared another long, slow kiss with me.

That’s when I felt something soft flutter against my back and twisted around only to go pale. “Uh…Mammon?”

“Mmm?” He murmured against my shoulder, his hands going everywhere.

Eyes wide, I whipped around to grab his chin and drag his eyes to mine as I jerked a thumb behind me. “What the hell happened to my wings!”

The were still there, only the white feathers had molted to leave behind bone and suede soft skin in the whitest, shiniest gold.

“Told ya I’d paint ya in my colors.” He smirked and winked as I tested out the wider longer span of my new demon wings.

“Uh...this will take some getting used to.”

“Best not to think of the horns then.”

“Wait, WHAT!!!”

TO BE CONTINUED...


End file.
